As 2012 and a new year is almost upon us, it is a good time to reflect on 2011 for PLC Public Sector and its subscribers. In this post we take a look at our most popular content of the year and the new content we have published.
Looking at our usage statistics, it is clear that the following issues are of particular interest to our subscribers:
- Employment issues, including TUPE.
- The Bribery Act 2010 and its implications for local authorities.
- Academies and other education issues.
- The Equality Act 2010 and especially the public sector equality duties.
- Shared services and partnership working.
- Public procurement issues.
- Judical review.
So without any further ado *drum roll please*, we can reveal that PLC Public Sector’s top ten legal updates for 2011 were:
- Shoesmith appeal allowed against Secretary of State and Haringey London Borough Council (Court of Appeal).
- Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 made and come into force.
- Bribery Act 2010: section 7 offence will lead to discretionary not mandatory exclusion from public procurements.
- School’s uniform policy held to be discriminatory (High Court).
- Protection of Freedoms Bill published: local government implications.
- Negligence claim concerning enhanced CRB checks fails (Court of Appeal).
- Ask the team: What is the legal status of schools and how do they enter into contracts?
- Education Bill published: local government implications.
- An order for possession under the non-secure tenancy regime must be proportionate (Supreme Court).
- Ask the team: What risks arise from abandoning a public procurement process?
Of particular interst to PLC Public Sector subscribers are:
- A new suite of content on property litigation.
- New planning standard agreements and enforcement notices.
- Magistrates’ courts materials.
- ASBO and housing related anti-social behaviour guidance and standard orders.
- New public law guidance.
PLC editors also dealt with nearly 900 feedback queries from our subscribers on issues ranging from property, planning, procurement, commercial agreements, shared services and TUPE to traffic offences and anti-social behaviour.
Our maintained content has also proved popular with our most popular resource – an overview of procurement law – being viewed over 8,000 times since it was published. Our top ten maintained resources in 2011 were:
- Public procurement in the UK.
- Freedom of information.
- Ask the team: public procurement FAQs.
- An introduction to judicial review.
- Services agreement for use by public sector bodies.
- Localism Act 2011.
- TUPE: notification of employee liability information.
- Academies under the Academies Act 2010: overview.
- Evaluation of tenders.
- Human Rights Act 1998: overview.
For a list of all the resources that have been published since our launch in 2008, see our new content list.
If there are any resources that you would particularly like PLC Public Sector to produce please e-mail us at: feedback@practicallaw.com.
In 2012 we will be publishing an LGPS admission agreement; more planning precedents; guidance on contract management; a shared services agreement; community use and asset trasnfer precedents, resources on market testing; a PQQ; materials on the county court , a suite of nuisance pleadings and various procurement correspondence.
For a full list of the content that we are planning to produce in 2012, see our provisional publishing schedule.
In 2011, we also launched:
Ask PLC, which currently enables our subscribers to ask our Employment and Property teams questions, browse others’ queries and share knowledge, Ask PLC will be extended to include PLC Public Sector in early 2012.
Primary source linking. All of our maintained resources now link to primary legislation and also link to all our coverage of a particular piece of legislation. Links to case references in our maintained content is expected to begin in 2012.
PLC Public Sector would like to wish all of its subscribers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Our next blog will appear in our e-mail dated 4 January 2012.