Sep 29, 2020
Robert Peel QC has been appointed a Justice of the High Court, assigned to the Family Division.
Sep 29, 2020
The Metropolitan Police’s retention of data on a 16-year-old child (known as II) from the age of 11 was unlawful and a disproportionate interference with his right to private life, a High Court judge has ruled.
Sep 28, 2020
The average time for a care or supervision case to reach first disposal was 36 weeks in April to June 2020, up three weeks from the same quarter in 2019, as the impact of COVID-19 was felt on family court activity.
Sep 28, 2020
Uber London (ULL) has won its appeal over the decision of Transport for London (TfL) in November 2019 not to renew its London private hire vehicle (PHV) operator’s licence.
Sep 25, 2020
The Court of Appeal has upheld the £25,000 fines imposed on a company and its director in respect of breaches of a listed building enforcement notice (LBEN) and a planning enforcement notice (PEN).
Sep 25, 2020
The Cabinet Office has launched a new model for delivering social value through government’s commercial activities.
Sep 25, 2020
Waltham Forest Council has secured six-figure confiscation orders in two cases against landlords who adapted their properties without seeking appropriate planning permissions – and then refused to revert them to their original structures.
Sep 24, 2020
Hertfordshire County Council has been asked by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to review its social care practices to ensure it meets its Care Act duties to help people keep their home tidy.
Sep 24, 2020
The North East branch of LLG has launched a student mentoring scheme in partnership with Northumbria University.
Sep 24, 2020
A group of fibreglass sharks that make speeches and perform a popular French song are at the centre of a legal battle involving the London Borough of Hackney.
Sep 24, 2020
A judge has strongly criticised a London borough over its handling of the assessment of a family’s accommodation needs.
Sep 24, 2020
Councils have until November to initiate actions for potentially millions of pounds worth of damages against vehicle suppliers found in 2016 to have operated a cartel.
Sep 23, 2020
The London Borough of Croydon has cited COVID-19 restrictions to reject a petition calling for a referendum on creating an elected mayoralty.
Sep 23, 2020
The Government is to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to require larger local authorities and other public bodies and businesses to take action against modern slavery risks in their supply chains.
Sep 23, 2020
The Welsh Government has issued a charter intended to put quality, sustainability and community at the heart of planning.
Sep 22, 2020
A theatre and two hotels have been converted into ‘Nightingale Courts’ and will begin hearings next week in a further bid to alleviate the pressure on courts and tribunals resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has announced.
Sep 22, 2020
The Committee on Standards in Public Life has launched a landscape review of the institutions, processes and structures in place to support high standards of conduct.
Sep 22, 2020
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council has lodged an appeal with Liverpool Crown Court over whether a former policeman convicted 14 years ago of abducting a 15-year-old girl should be granted a taxi driver licence.
Sep 21, 2020
The Law Commission has launched a consultation on proposals to reform the confiscation regime which it says “could help recover an extra £8m per year from convicted criminals, by more accurately and efficiently determining a defendant’s criminal proceeds and more effectively enforcing confiscation…
Sep 21, 2020
The Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton, has published a statement on the resumption of possession cases from 20 September.
Sep 21, 2020
LLG has hit out at plans to reduce the number of representatives from local government on the Law Society Council.
Sep 21, 2020
A High Court judge has ordered that three children be placed for adoption after calling their mother “the most egregious liar I have ever encountered”.
Sep 21, 2020
One of the leading licensing QCs in the country, Philip Kolvin, has joined 11KBW.
Sep 17, 2020
An unnamed South Wales local authority has been stopped by the High Court from withdrawing three admissions of lability made in a lengthy dispute over the care while a child of J, who is now aged 20 and seeks damages.
Sep 17, 2020
The Government has revealed that a pilot online ‘nitrate trading’ auction platform could, if successful in south Hampshire and the Solent, be extended and rolled out to a number of other areas, “providing a vital wider application to other parts of England”.
Sep 17, 2020
The Minister of State for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, Nadine Dorries MP, has upheld Southampton City Council’s decision to issue a direction which cancelled the Southampton International Boat Show (Boats 2020).
Sep 17, 2020
Trade union Unison has urged care workers and others to enter litigation over payments for time spent travelling between work appointments, following an Employment Tribunal ruling.
Sep 16, 2020
The government has extended protection for commercial tenants from eviction until the end of the year, the Communities Secretary has announced.
Sep 16, 2020
The Court of Appeal has rejected a bid to seek judicial review of Suffolk County Council’s decision to give itself planning consent for a new primary school in Lakenheath.
Sep 16, 2020
The Licensing Sub-Committee at Birmingham City Council has revoked the premises licence of a bar in the Jewellery Quarter after it was found to be breaching COVID-19 guidelines.
Sep 16, 2020
The temporary increase in notice periods for eviction in Wales, including those announced in July, will be extended to 31 March 2021, Housing and Local Government Minister Julie James has announced.
Sep 16, 2020
A group of leading claimant law firms has written to the Lord Chancellor to voice concern that the panel members of Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL) “are not fully representative of those concerned about the future of judicial review”.
Sep 16, 2020
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has called on the Government to use planned social care reforms to require adult social care providers to tell people, if they are unhappy with the services they are receiving, how to complain not only to the providers themselves, but also how to…
Sep 16, 2020
An education group established this year by the merger of two colleges in the East Midlands is to set up a legal services framework.
Sep 15, 2020
An updated algorithm designed by government to set how many new homes need to be built in local areas will lead to London and the South seeing a housing boom while swathes of the north will see fewer homes built, the Local Government Association has claimed.
Sep 15, 2020
More than three quarters (76%) of people working in health and care who responded to a call for evidence told the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) that during COVID-19 they were not provided with legal training or clear information about upholding human rights law.
Sep 15, 2020
Doughty Street Chambers has added four barristers including a QC to its public law and civil liberties and human rights team.
Sep 14, 2020
Housing and property specialist Matthew Feldman has joined Cornerstone Barristers from 42 Bedford Row.
Sep 14, 2020
A High Court judge has awarded Essex County Council indemnity costs after ruling earlier this year that the local authority had been entitled as of 13 June 2019 to terminate a 25-year contract with UBB for the processing of household waste.
Sep 14, 2020
A residential care home business in Cardiff has been fined more than £430,000 for serious fire safety failings, following a prosecution brought by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
Sep 11, 2020
The use of unregulated accommodation for under 18s in care should be banned, the Children's Commissioner's Office has said following an investigation into vulnerable children in care living in semi-independent accommodation.
Sep 11, 2020
The two shadow authorities for the new Northamptonshire unitaries have named the recommended candidates for the roles of director of legal.
Sep 11, 2020
The former director general of the Attorney General’s Office, Rowena Collins Rice, and barristers from 11KBW and Kings Chambers are among six new Justices of the High Court.
Sep 10, 2020
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council has unveiled plans to establish a legal services framework panel of experienced solicitors.
Sep 10, 2020
A disabled father and his family were left in “mouldy, mouse-infested” temporary accommodation, despite Enfield Council accepting it was not suitable for their needs, an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Sep 10, 2020
An environmental campaigner has initiated an application for judicial review of the government’s decision to exclude municipal waste incinerators from the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.
Sep 10, 2020
The High Court is due next month to hear a procurement challenge over how the Royal Parks awarded a contract to organise concerts in London’s Hyde Park.
Sep 10, 2020
An investment firm plans to raise some £250m by floating a real estate investment trust, with the funds used to house homeless people.
Sep 09, 2020
A developer has lost on all four grounds in a legal challenge to Salford City Council and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government over their refusal to grant permission for a major scheme.
Sep 09, 2020
The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to use the law to protect the interests of the public, is seeking to crowd fund an action against the government on air quality.
Sep 09, 2020
A Merseyside council has deplored a magistrate's decision to grant a taxi licence to a man convicted in 2006 of abducting a 15-year-old girl.
Sep 09, 2020
An independent review has called for the establishment of a new organisation, the Office of Local Audit and Regulation (OLAR), to act as the system leader for the local audit framework.
Sep 09, 2020
The Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL) has issued a call for evidence “on how well or effectively judicial review balances the legitimate interest in citizens being able to challenge the lawfulness of executive action with the role of the executive in carrying on the business of…
Sep 09, 2020
The Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary of the Government Legal Department, Sir Jonathan Jones, has resigned.
Sep 08, 2020
The UK's first energy company to be set up and run by a council is to be shut down and its customer base sold to a rival energy supplier, following an audit which found serious governance failings.
Sep 08, 2020
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has launched a consultation on proposals for reforming exit payment terms for local government workers.
Sep 08, 2020
Trowers & Hamlins has advised Tirion Homes, a “not-for-profit” housing company, on first phase refinancing of The Mill, a £100m, residential-led urban regeneration project in Cardiff, by M&G Investments.
Sep 07, 2020
The High Court will this week hear a case relating to the decision by the Minister of State for Housing to “call-in” the determination of the planning application for the proposed UK Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens next to the Palace of Westminster.
Sep 07, 2020
A consultation is being held on a proposed short Social Work Evidence Template (SWET) for use in urgent hearings, as well as an updated version of the full SWET.
Sep 07, 2020
A Divisional Court will next month hear campaign group Rights : Community : Action’s (RCA’s) judicial review challenge to the government’s new rules on permitted development.
Sep 07, 2020
Cumbria County Council has been shortlisted in the Excellence – In-House category for this year’s Law Society Excellence Awards.
Sep 07, 2020
The Housing Ombudsman has issued a report containing almost 40 recommendations for dealing with complaints from leaseholders and shared owners.
Sep 07, 2020
The University of Portsmouth has appointed Eversheds Sutherland to a £1.2m contract to work in partnership with its in-house legal team.
Sep 07, 2020
Councils have expressed concern at a potential spike in referrals to children’s social services for support, after it emerged that the number of children referred fell by almost a fifth during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown between April and June.
Sep 04, 2020
An elderly couple of 59 years were split up with little regard for their welfare by the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Sep 03, 2020
The Housing Ombudsman found full or partial maladministration in 39% of cases determined in 2019/20, up 2% on the previous year, its Annual Report and Accounts have revealed.
Sep 03, 2020
The Academy of Experts has issued guidance for expert witnesses on giving evidence remotely, with the document approved by its judicial committee.
Sep 03, 2020
A trade union has hailed as a landmark ruling a case in which the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that foster care workers were council employees and so entitled to employment rights.
Sep 03, 2020
A group opposed to incineration has applied through law firm Leigh Day to the High Court for permission to judicially review a project whose chimney it complains is too small.
Sep 03, 2020
Broadland District Council’s Cabinet has voted down a proposal to form a local authority trading company for waste services despite concerns from its monitoring officer about the conduct of the meeting.
Sep 03, 2020
Isle of Wight Council has taken pre-action legal steps with suppliers of the island’s ‘floating bridge’ ferry after it spent most of the summer out of action.
Sep 03, 2020
The High Court has agreed to allow London mayor Sadiq Khan to challenge at judicial review a plan to build an incinerator at Belvedere, in south-east London.
Sep 03, 2020
Liverpool’s elected mayor has stepped in to prevent a zip wire attraction being built in the city centre after conservation group the Victorian Society threatened legal action.
Sep 02, 2020
Local authority-owned law firm LGSS Law has reported a return to profit having made a profit of £349,612 in the last financial year, after enduring a “challenging” couple of years.
Sep 02, 2020
Legal charity LawWorks has announced it will expand its services in Wales having received a grant of £422,760 from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Sep 01, 2020
New powers in the revised Housing Ombudsman Scheme that takes effect from today (1 September) will help improve awareness, accessibility and speed of complaint resolution, it has been claimed.
Sep 01, 2020
Bromley Council has threatened to take legal action against Croydon Council after temporary road closures have caused displaced traffic to congest Bromley's roads.
Sep 01, 2020
Law firm Capsticks has promoted a total of 22 of its lawyers, including four into its partnership and six to the role of legal director.
Sep 01, 2020
North Somerset Council is to appoint a legal services provider to advse on a major transport scheme.
Sep 01, 2020
Social landlord Cartrefi Conwy, which has more than 3,800 properties throughout the county of Conwy in North Wales, has appointed its local authority and eight law firms to a legal services framework estimated to be worth £4.2m.
Sep 01, 2020
The Court of Appeal has granted permission for an appeal in a case that is said to raise an important point of legal principle relating to homelessness appeals.
Sep 01, 2020
The Court of Appeal will this week (4 September) hear Article 39’s appeal over a High Court ruling that while the Department for Education’s Coronavirus Regulations did damage children’s safeguards, they were not unlawful due to the pandemic.
Aug 28, 2020
Merging district and county councils into single unitary councils could save £2.94bn over five years, reduce complexity and maximise economic growth, a study published by the County Councils Network has claimed.
Aug 28, 2020
The Court of Appeal has refused permission to appeal a High Court ruling dismissing a judicial review challenge to a stroke services review in Kent.
Aug 28, 2020
Lambeth Council is to consider joining the London Boroughs Legal Alliance (LBLA) as an associate member so it can access its barristers framework.
Aug 27, 2020
The Good Law Project and three MPs have launched a judicial review challenge amid claims that the Government has repeatedly failed to lawfully publish contract award notices, in respect of contracts connected to COVID-19, which have been awarded.
Aug 27, 2020
Merton Council has agreed to pay more than £1,700 in compensation to a man who had to give up one of his jobs because the authority gave him accommodation in Birmingham – leaving him with a three-hour commute.
Aug 27, 2020
The London Borough of Islington has lost “a most unusual” Court of Appeal action in which it argued that a confiscation order in a housing overcrowding case was too lenient.
Aug 27, 2020
The Court of Appeal has rejected a case in which two men argued that a Crown Court judge miscalculated confiscation orders made following a prosecution by the Environment Agency.
Aug 26, 2020
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued guidance for local authorities on how to access the local government income compensation scheme for lost sales, fees and charges as a result of COVID-19.
