‘Not up to standard’: 25% of care agencies providing services to people in their homes are failing – The Independent

“A quarter of agencies that provide care to people in their own homes do not meet all five national standards of quality and safety, regulators said.”

Full story

The Independent, 13th February 2013

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Council tax challenge goes to the Court of Appeal – BBC News

Posted February 12th, 2013 in appeals, benefits, consultations, council tax, local government, news, poverty by tracey

“A single mother is taking her legal battle over a north London council’s plans
to make people on benefits contribute to their council tax bill to the Court of
Appeal.”

Full story

BBC News, 12th February 2013

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Room without review: Thoughts on tackling the bedroom tax – NearlyLegal

Posted February 11th, 2013 in benefits, budgets, disability discrimination, housing, local government, news, rent by sally

“With the beginning of the bedroom tax looming up for April and upwards of 700,000 households affected, I’ve been thinking about the position when the inevitable rent arrears possessions start to appear – probably by about October – and also whether the statute itself is open to challenge.”

Full story

NearlyLegal, 10th February 2013

Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk

£23m of parking fines ‘may have been unlawful’ – BBC News

Posted February 11th, 2013 in appeals, fines, local government, news, parking, time limits by sally

“Almost 350,000 parking fines – totalling an estimated £23m – may have been unlawfully issued to motorists in London, a BBC investigation has found.”

Full story

BBC News, 11th February 2013

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Pensioner ‘held prisoner’ by local council wins legal victory – The Independent

Posted February 11th, 2013 in appeals, care homes, compensation, human rights, local government, mental health, news by sally

“A pensioner who was ‘held prisoner’ by a local authority won a legal victory when the council admitted violating her human rights.”

Full story

The Independent, 8th February 2013

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Regina (Gallastegui) v Westminster City Council and others – WLR Daily

Regina (Gallastegui) v Westminster City Council and others [2013] EWCA Civ 28; [2013] WLR (D) 45

“Sections 143 and 145 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 were carefully targeted to prevent protesters camping with tents or sleeping equipment on Parliament Square Gardens, but did not generally impair freedom to protest at all. As a consequence they were not incompatible with the rights to freedom of expression and protest in articles 10 and 11 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Sincethe procedure set out in the 2011 Act allowed for access to a court, article 6 of the Convention was not engaged.”

WLR Daily, 30th January 2013

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Regina (Redcar and Cleveland Independent Providers Association and others) v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council – WLR Daily

Posted February 7th, 2013 in care homes, elderly, fees, judicial review, law reports, local government, news by sally

Regina (Redcar and Cleveland Independent Providers Association and others) v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council [2013] EWHC 4 (Admin); [2013] WLR (D) 44

“A dispute between care providers and a local authority over the rate due for supporting the care of the elderly in care homes was amenable to judicial review.”

WLR Daily, 17th January 2013

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Refusal to make a statement: remember the context – Education Law Blog

Posted February 5th, 2013 in appeals, education, local government, news, special educational needs, tribunals by tracey

“A short recent decision of the Upper Tribunal (JS v Worcestershire County Council [2012] UKUT 451 (AAC)) has emphasised the importance, when assessing a child’s special educational needs (‘SENs’), of considering the context in which he or she is performing.”

Full story

Education Law Blog, 4th february 2013

Source: www.education11kbw.com

When a deficiency makes no difference – NearlyLegal

Posted February 4th, 2013 in homelessness, housing, local government, news by tracey

“The question for the Court of Appeal in this second appeal from a homeless appeal, was ‘How should the courts deal with a plainly deficient homelessness decision when the deficiency has had no adverse consequences for the applicant?’. The issue being the effect of the lack of a ‘minded to’ letter requesting submissions under Regulation 8(2) Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Review Procedures) Regulations 1999. As we’ll see, the Court of Appeal agrees on the result, but not on the way of getting to it.”

Full story

NearlyLegal, 3rd February 2013

Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/

Ibrahim v Wandsworth London Borough Council – WLR Daily

Posted February 1st, 2013 in homelessness, housing, law reports, local government by tracey

Ibrahim v Wandsworth London Borough Council: [2013] EWCA Civ 20;   [2013] WLR (D)  38

“A local authority reviewer’s duty under regulation 8(2) of the Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Review Procedures) Regulations 1999, to invite representations from the applicant where the reviewer was minded to make a decision against the interests of the applicant despite there being a deficiency in the local authority’s original decision, was not engaged where the deficiency was not the subject of any complaint by the applicant on the review and had been neither upheld nor decided upon by the reviewer.”

WLR Daily, 30th January 2013

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Judge says £420,000 racism claim can stand, after 13 years of ‘Dickensian’ wrangling – Daily Telegraph

“A race equality campaigner who won £420,000 compensation after a council-funded anti-racism group turned her down for a job has emerged victorious from a “Dickensian” court battle – at the ultimate expense of the public purse.”

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 29th January 2013

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Ordinary residence and local authority and NHS services – Hardwicke Chambers

Posted January 28th, 2013 in domicile, health, local government, news by sally

“There are two questions about residence:

1. Ordinary residence: Which public body is responsible for providing services?
2. Right of residence: Does the person’s residence and status in the UK give them a legal right to access public services?”

Full story

Hardwicke Chambers, 24th January 2013

Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk

Snelling and another v Burstow Parish Council – WLR Daily

Posted January 28th, 2013 in law reports, local government, sale of land by sally

Snelling and another v Burstow Parish Council [2013] EWHC 46 (Ch); [2013] WLR (D) 27

Garden allotments which came under the management of the parish council by virtue of section 33(4) of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 were intended to be governed exclusively by the powers set out in section 26 and onwards of that Act. Accordingly, the parish council’s power to sell the allotments was the power conferred by section 32 of the 1908 Act, subject to obtaining the consent of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to section 8 of the Allotments Act 1925, and not the power under section 27 of the Commons Act 1876.

WLR Daily, 24th January 2013

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Ministers consider clampdown on ‘industrial users’ of Freedom of Information – BBC News

Posted January 24th, 2013 in freedom of information, local government, news by sally

“The government is considering how to curb repetitive and overly expensive Freedom of Information requests, a justice minister has said.”

Full story

BBC News, 24th January 2013

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Barnet’s ‘easyCouncil’ faces judicial review over outsourcing – The Guardian

“The ‘easyCouncil’ model of no-frills local services is set to go on trial this spring after the High Court announced it will review a £320m services contract due to be outsourced by the Conservative-controlled London Borough of Barnet.”

Full story

The Guardian, 22nd January 2013

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Wrong priorities – NearlyLegal

Posted January 21st, 2013 in complaints, housing, local government, maladministration, news, ombudsmen by sally

“Every now and again, there is a Local Government Ombudsman report that seems to go beyond individual instances of maladministration and instead capture something of the zeitgeist. The LGO decision summarised here may well be one of the latter (certainly the Guardian thinks so), as arguably what it shows is a Local Authority prioritising its own administrative concerns over its legal duties in both its policy and the operation of policy. There is also a routine failure to ask the kind of questions that might have meant it had to do more. This on top of a series of administrative failures.”

Full story

NearlyLegal, 20th January 2013

Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk

Public sector equality duty – planning permission for school – Education Law Blog

Posted January 18th, 2013 in education, equality, local government, news, planning by tracey

“In R. (on the application of Coleman) v Barnet LBC [2012] EWHC 3725 (Admin) , the High Court has held that the local authority had discharged its public sector equality duty (under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010) when granting planning permission for the development of a school on land on which a garden centre had been situated.”

Full story

Education Law Blog, 15th January 2013

Source: www.education11kbw.com

What a religious discrimination ruling means for local government – The Guardian

“Councils can expect the backing of the legal system if they insist that employees conduct civil partnerships.”

Full story

The Guardian, 16th January 2013

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Council to sue three of its own members in slur row – BBC News

Posted January 11th, 2013 in defamation, electronic mail, local government, news by tracey

“A Conservative-controlled council is to sue three of its own members claiming they have damaged its reputation.”

Full story

BBC News, 11th January 2013

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

British Humanist Association and another v Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council (Secretary of State for Education intervening) – WLR Daily

British Humanist Association and another v Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council (Secretary of State for Education intervening) : [2012] EWHC 3622 (Admin);   [2012] WLR (D)  386

“The obligation on a local authority to invite proposals to establish academies under section 6A of the Education Act 2006, as amended, was triggered if a local authority thought there was a need to establish a new school in their area. It was implicit in the scheme of Part 2 of the 2006 Act that there was a distinction between the concept of a “need”, which imported a sense of compelling requirement to establish a new school under section 6A, and a more general assessment by a local authority whether it might be beneficial for a new school to be established.”

WLR Daily, 14th December 2012

Source: www.iclr.co.uk