This month focuses on the impact of Covid-19 and Brexit, as well as public to public cooperation, contracts, conservation, MSA and social care.
Welcome to our Public Matters Newsletter.
This month we have:
The European Court of Justice looks again at the Hamburg Waste Principle by which public authorities may cooperate in delivery of services without setting up a separate body or running a tender exercise.
The economic turmoil caused by lockdown measures combined with uncertainty over Brexit has been said to create a ‘perfect storm’.
With an uncertain economic outlook in the post-Covid era, employers may face the prospect of having to appoint a new contractor. Public sector bodies can find restarting projects particularly challenging, so what should they consider?
There is a potential for significant change and public bodies are likely to be at the forefront of delivering that change.
The UKSPF has been proposed to replace the EU ESI funding for less developed regions, however a number of issues require resolution before the fund can be set up.
Timely guidance given that modern slavery will not be exempt from the health, social and economic challenges brought about by Covid-19.
This consultation has been prompted by the specific issue of ‘debt for yield’ to ensure that the PWLB can continue to support local authority investment.
This University of Birmingham research briefing is relevant to local authorities and insurers because so many claims are based on alleged shortcomings in social work practice.
Law firm Browne Jacobson has collaborated with Wiltshire Council and Christ Church Business School on the launch event of The Council Company Best Practice and Innovation Network, a platform which brings together academic experts and senior local authority leaders, allowing them to share best practice in relation to council companies.
In the Autumn Statement delivered on 17 November, rises to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates were announced, to take effect from 1 April 2023.
Announced in September but scrapped on 17 November the investment zone proposals were very short lived. The proposal has now morphed into the proposal for a smaller number of clustered zones earmarked for investment.
Settlement agreements are commonplace in an employment context and are ordinarily used to provide the parties to the agreement with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship.
On 2 November 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the much awaiting case of Hillside Parks Ltd v Snowdonia National Park Authority [2022] UKSC 30. The Court’s judgment suggests that the long established practice of using drop-in applications is in fact much more restricted than previously thought. This judgment therefore has significant implications for both the developers and local planning authorities.
In ‘failure to remove’ claims, the claimant alleges abuse in the family home and asserts that the local authority should have known about the abuse and/or that they should have removed the claimant from the family home and into care earlier.
Across the UK, homelessness is an urgent crisis, and one that is set to grow amid the rising cost of living. Local authorities are at the forefront of responding to this crisis, but with a lack of properties that are suitable for social housing across the UK, vulnerable individuals and families are often housed in temporary accommodation.
Settlement agreements in an employment context are ordinarily used to provide both parties with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship – but what happens when there is alleged discrimination after entering into a settlement agreement?
Updates include UK Shared Prosperity Fund, contracts, Subsidy Control Bill, data controller liability, Government Covid-19 procurement and Highway Code revisions.
The complex and rather nebulous transitional subsidy control regime set out in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the UK’s wider international commitments has made it difficult for public authorities and those working with them to proceed with certainty where subsidies are involved.
