At Browne Jacobson, our nationally leading constitutional and administrative law practice spans the whole public sector. We provide advice on a full range of issues from drafting legislation to judicial reviews, as well as on decision making to statutory interpretation.
Our specialist constitutional and administrative lawyers know the sector inside-out, enabling us to provide relevant and expert advice on some of the biggest projects being undertaken, across the public sector.
We act for health bodies, schools, academies, further and higher education institutions, local government, central government, devolved administrations, arm’s length bodies and registered housing providers.
Across the team we pride ourselves on providing a seamless service on all aspects of constitutional and administrative law, often working with specialist colleagues to ensure decision making on major projects undertaken by our clients is sound and compliant.
We’ve advised on devolution deals, freeports, infrastructure projects, and asset rationalisation (such as care home and library closures), as well as having significant experience of advising on the policy proposals for legislation, interpreting legislation and, unusually for a law firm, legislative drafting. In addition we both defend, and bring, judicial reviews, having acted in several high profile and groundbreaking judicial reviews, achieving successful outcomes for our clients.
We have been the sole external legal advisors to the IMA since its inception, advising the General Counsel and his team on the IMA’s use of their regulatory, monitoring and litigation powers and helping the newly formed arms-length body establish itself.
We advised Qualifications Wales Board and Executive in relation to the delivery of qualifications during the pandemic, including the incredibly challenging decision-making in relation to the cancellation of exams.
We successfully defended the MMO in relation to a challenge to its decision to grant a marine licence for dredging, as part of the construction and operation of Hinckley C.
Advising a group of local authorities in relation to agreement of a devolution deal, creation of a proposal and consultation.
“Sincere thanks to the team for all your hard work in putting forward such a robust defence.”
“We were really impressed by how quick you were to understand our policy intentions and deliver on the separate requirements in such a short time scale.”
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.
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.
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.
Investment zones have been introduced by the Conservative party to get the United Kingdom (UK) ‘working, building and growing’. They are to be designated sites which provide time-limited tax incentives, streamlined planning rules and wider support for local growth to encourage investment and accelerate the development of housing and infrastructure that the UK needs to drive economic growth. Processes and requirements that slow down development will be stripped back with the intention of attracting new investment.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
It is clear that the digital landscape, often termed cyberspace, is a man-made environment, in which human behaviour dominates and where technology both influences and aids our role in it — through the internet, telecoms and networked computer systems, which are often interdependent. The extent to which any organisation is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack depends on how well these elements are aligned.
Three months on from the commencement of the new statutory Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Anja Beriro and Gerrard Hanratty reflect on the main themes and issues that have come from the new relationship between local government and health.
The Procurement Bill (the Bill) has now been with us for about four months, during which time there have been a huge number of amendments proposed in the House of Lords (circa 320). Lately, there has been less mention of it — unsurprising, really, given everything else going on in politics recently — but here’s a summary of some of the key issues and themes so far.
Browne Jacobson has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Public Sector Legal Services Framework on Lot 1a – full-service provision (England and Wales) and Lot 2a – general service provision (England and Wales).
Welcome to our September edition of Public Matters, our monthly round-up of legal updates, news and insights for the public sector.
Since the UK left the EU and are now able to move away from the EU data protection regime, the UK government have implemented a national data strategy with the aim of reducing the burden on organisations but maintaining a high data protection standard.
The Chancellor’s recent mini-budget provided a significant announcement for business as it was confirmed that the off-payroll working rules (known as “IR35”) put in place for public and private sector businesses from 2017 and 2021 will be scrapped from April 2023.
