Jun 29, 2022
The High Court has refused a judicial review application seeking to contest Powys County Council's decision to close a small rural school.
Jun 29, 2022
The Government has requested the Law Commission of England and Wales conduct a review into the law on contempt of court over concerns that it is "disordered and unclear".
Jun 29, 2022
Law firm Devonshires has bolstered its Leeds office with the hire of experienced landlord and tenant lawyer Sara Mondon from Kirklees Council.
Jun 29, 2022
The Gambling Commission can proceed with the award of the fourth licence to operate the National Lottery after a High Court judge lifted the automatic suspension which arose on the issue of two procurement challenges.
Jun 29, 2022
A Wiltshire man has been ordered to pay more than £26,000 after Wiltshire Council prosecuted him for non-compliance with planning enforcement notices at a site in Bromham.
Jun 29, 2022
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is to carry out an investigation into the roles of Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Secretary of State for DEFRA in the regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in England.
Jun 29, 2022
The High Court has found that the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has an implied power to withdraw a final report and remake a decision where it considers it flawed by legal error, following a judicial review over its decision to walk back a finding of injustice at Tewkesbury…
Jun 29, 2022
A York MP has proposed a new law that would regulate all short-term accommodation, including Airbnbs, in an attempt to tackle what she claims is a growing problem involving 'party houses' in family neighbourhoods.
Jun 28, 2022
A housing association that owns thousands of properties in West London is non-compliant with the governance element of the Regulator of Social Housing's economic standards, an investigation by the regulator has concluded.
Jun 28, 2022
The Court of Appeal has confirmed a judgment of the High Court that affected parties do not have a right to bring private law actions against water companies over unauthorised discharges of sewage.
Jun 28, 2022
The First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has said that he will fight an attempt by the UK government to repeal a law passed by the Senedd in 2017 that banned agency staff replacing striking public sector workers in Wales.
Jun 27, 2022
Parents at a London school embroiled in legal disputes after its administration resolved to join a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) have launched new legal proceedings against Ofsted for an inspection that downgraded the school to 'inadequate'.
Jun 27, 2022
Almost all councils (98 per cent) responding to a Local Government Association survey on the Government's adult social care reform agenda say they do not have confidence that the funding earmarked for the reforms is sufficient.
Jun 27, 2022
A disabled person's judicial review claim of the City of London Corporation's charging policy for a bathing pond has been dismissed by a High Court judge who said the claimant's argument "offends the principle of ensuring socio-economic equality".
Jun 27, 2022
St Albans City and District Council (SADC) and Watford Borough Council are set to share legal services as part of a wider agreement that also covers planning enforcement and building control.
Jun 27, 2022
Manchester Metropolitan University is to procure a framework “of appropriately experienced legal firms” to support its legal team in all aspects of their work.
Jun 24, 2022
A Cornwall creamery behind cheese brands such as Cathedral City has been fined £1.5m - the largest fine ever awarded for an Environment Agency (EA) conviction in the South West.
Jun 24, 2022
A district council in Kent is to appoint a legal services provider to a contract worth up to £2.1m to advise on the development of a locally-led "garden town".
Jun 24, 2022
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is seeking a supplier capable of providing a "high quality and cost effective" service advising on employment law.
Jun 24, 2022
Camden Council has received £19m in settlement of a High Court claim against a contractor who previously had responsibility for a council housing estate under a private finance initiative agreement (PFI) with the local authority.
Jun 24, 2022
An interim injunction prohibiting people from congregating in a Westminster square has been discharged after the Central London Court found it was obtained unlawfully as Westminster City Council had failed to have due regard to its equalities duties.
Jun 24, 2022
Directors of children’s services have made an urgent call for “robust guidance” and “sufficient funding” to accompany a new government policy allowing unaccompanied Ukrainian children to come to the UK.
Jun 24, 2022
A charity that supports people going through court without representation as litigants in person has this week launched an emergency appeal in response to recent funding cuts.
Jun 23, 2022
A local campaign group has been granted permission for judicial review of a decision by South Cambridgeshire District Council to approve a 4,000-home development for a new town on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Jun 23, 2022
Croydon Council has agreed to review its services to homeless families in temporary accommodation after a mother had her complaint upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Jun 22, 2022
The President of the Family Division has confirmed the launch of a National DoLs (Deprivation of Liberty) court on 4 July 2022 that will deal with applications seeking authorisation to deprive children of their liberty.
Jun 22, 2022
A prior information notice has been issued for a prospective multi-provider, multi-lot framework agreement for the provision of legal services primarily in support of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
Jun 22, 2022
The Supreme Court has handed down a ruling on how a telecoms operator who has already installed electronic communications apparatus on a site can acquire new or better code rights from the site owner.
Jun 22, 2022
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee has said government proposals to reform the planning system would "radically" centralise planning decision-making and "substantially" erode public participation in the planning system.
Jun 22, 2022
Home Office guidance on maintaining a no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition on a child has been ruled unlawful by the High Court after the judge found its wording was similar to a document that was previously found unlawful by the Divisional Court.
Jun 22, 2022
National law firm Weightmans has seen its total income increase by 5% to £103.2m and net profit jump 25% from £9m to £11.3m.
Jun 22, 2022
The Housing Ombudsman has found severe maladministration at Habinteg Housing Association for failing to respond to reports of a hate-crime incident and failing to consider its impact on the resident.
Jun 21, 2022
Tameside Council has appointed its Borough Solicitor, Sandra Stewart, as interim chief executive after the council's longstanding chief executive, Steven Pleasant, stepped down over a derogatory tweet about the Conservative party.
Jun 21, 2022
A judicial review challenging Wiltshire Council's decision-making in relation to a major new distributor road serving a large-scale development project, the Future Chippenham programme, has been dismissed by a High Court judge.
Jun 21, 2022
The High Court has quashed Bristol City Council's grant of planning permission for a 62-home development on a former zoo car park, following a judicial review claim that argued the local authority based its decision on a flawed planning officer's report.
Jun 21, 2022
Local authorities face significant barriers to tackling poor conditions in the private rented sector, resulting in an uneven picture of enforcement, a study commissioned by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has found.
Jun 21, 2022
The Government has set out plans to reform the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that will give Parliament and the Secretary of State greater oversight of the data regulator and broaden the legal responsibility underpinning its work.
Jun 20, 2022
A High Court judge has quashed a coroner's ruling that the inquest into the death of a 16-year-old girl will not investigate in what circumstances she came by her death.
Jun 20, 2022
The Local Government Association has renewed its call for virtual and hybrid council meetings to be “an integral part of the future of local democracy”.
Jun 20, 2022
Uttlesford District Council is to make a Part 36 Offer to Stansted Airport Limited (STAL) of £1.4m in full and final settlement of planning appeal costs.
Jun 20, 2022
Some 155 local authorities have no local active court compared to 178 that do, a new, live, interactive map of key national and regional data on access to justice across England and Wales produced by the Bar Council has shown.
Jun 20, 2022
Interim guidance from the Family Justice Council (FJC), published last month, has highlighted how to avoid conflicts of interest when using psychologist expert witnesses in family court cases involving allegations of alienating behaviours.
Jun 17, 2022
The Upper Tribunal has dismissed an appeal by HM Revenue & Customs over the VAT liability for admissions charges for sports and leisure facilities provided by Chelmsford City Council.
Jun 17, 2022
A Westminster councillor has received damages in a libel case against the BBC after the news organisation misidentified her as another BAME politician who had been accused of housing fraud.
Jun 17, 2022
Councils have welcomed publication of the Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper including the proposed outlawing of ‘no-fault’ section 21 evictions but called on the Government to go further in tackling insecure and unfit housing.
Jun 17, 2022
An over-subscribed Surrey school has agreed to rehear a mother's appeal for a school place after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found issues with the way the original hearing was recorded.
Jun 16, 2022
Retailer Argos has failed in a bid to have proceedings brought against it by London Borough of Barking & Dagenham stayed as an abuse of the process of the court.
Jun 16, 2022
A Family Division judge has criticised “lamentable” delays in a child placement case and demanded reports from the borough council and Cafcass on what happened and how it might best be prevented in the future.
Jun 16, 2022
The Court of Appeal has granted permission for a second appeal in a case that will consider the extent of a housing authority’s duties in complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), Garden Court North Chambers has said.
Jun 16, 2022
Government plans to extend fixed recoverable costs (FRC) to all civil cases in the fast track up to a value of £100,000 risks the collapse of legal aid in housing cases.
Jun 16, 2022
Portsmouth City Council is set to reverse a decision to break its contract with a gas supplier after being told the company’s ownership had changed from Russian to German.
Jun 16, 2022
Poor data collection by employers in health and social care is legally questionable and may be masking the extent of discrimination against lower-paid workers who have experienced bullying, racism and harassment, an inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has heard.
Jun 15, 2022
Sunderland City Council has appointed three law firms to a claims handling legal services framework worth an estimated £300,000.
Jun 15, 2022
The Housing Ombudsman has found severe maladministration at Stratford and Rural Homes (now Housing Plus Group) for how it dealt with a resident's complaint about delayed repairs and a bedbug infestation.
Jun 15, 2022
Wiltshire Council has successfully prosecuted a local resident for environmental and trading standards offences whilst he was operating a waste clearance service on Facebook selling sites across the county.
Jun 15, 2022
The process adopted by a judge when making care orders was flawed as it did not adequately assess the prospects of various options to mitigate the risk of sexual harm, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Jun 14, 2022
The Home Office is facing a judicial review over its decision to ignore a Grenfell Tower inquiry's recommendation to implement personal emergency evacuation plans for disabled people.
Jun 14, 2022
Claire Fox, a specialist in public law children matters, has joined the family team at 1 Crown Office Row in Brighton.
Jun 14, 2022
The Court of Appeal will this week (16 June) consider the role of local authorities, under the Care Act 2014, in respect of facilitating holidays and recreation for people with care needs.
Jun 14, 2022
A purchasing consortium owned and run by the further education sector, has appointed eight law firms to a legal services framework worth up to £49m over four years.
Jun 14, 2022
The Board at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has asked senior staff and member council chief executives to engage with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHC) to address "significant" weaknesses in the authority's governance arrangements.
Jun 13, 2022
A care provider has been fined £1.5m at Crawley Magistrates’ Court, after it failed to meet a resident’s nutritional and hydration needs and protect them from avoidable harm.
Jun 13, 2022
A Peterborough landlord has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for the illegal eviction and harassment of a private tenant, following a prosecution brought by Peterborough City Council.
Jun 13, 2022
A property manager who illegally converted two family homes into eight flats without permission has been ordered to pay £73,850.
Jun 13, 2022
Two former senior officers at Oadby and Wigston Borough Council convicted of fraud against the local authority and a cancer charity have been issued with Proceeds of Crime Act orders.
Jun 13, 2022
More than seven per cent of all of England’s planned house building cannot go ahead due to river pollution levels, with further house building banned in other areas because of low water levels, analysis by the Local Government Association has suggested.
Jun 13, 2022
Law firm Capsticks has bolstered its specialist health and social care national inquest team with the arrival of four lawyers from DWF.
Jun 13, 2022
A legal campaign group has filed proceedings in the High Court against the water services regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, over alleged failures to regulate sewage discharge into rivers, lakes and the sea.
Jun 10, 2022
The chief executive of Thanet District Council, Madeline Homer, is to leave the local authority in the aftermath of an Independent Monitoring Officer's (IMO) investigation into divisions at the local authority.
Jun 10, 2022
A sex worker's union, which is raising funds to launch a judicial review against Edinburgh City Council over a blanket strip club ban, has said it wishes to fund similar legal challenges across the UK.
Jun 10, 2022
A Barnet Council resident has accepted a request by the London borough's legal team to adjourn his judicial review application over plans to build student accommodation in Hendon.
Jun 10, 2022
A Worcestershire woman who had a stroke was left without appropriate care for 12 months because the county council took too long to set up her direct payments, an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has concluded.
Jun 09, 2022
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has today confirmed that the Right to Buy scheme will be extended to two and a half million tenants who rent their homes from housing associations.
Jun 09, 2022
Castle Point Borough Council is at risk of Government intervention after the local authority voted to abandon a local plan at least four years in the making, according to the council's chief executive.
Jun 09, 2022
The Supreme Court will next week (15 June) hand down its ruling on whether, when an appellate court reviews a first instance decision concerning the proportionality of orders made under the courts’ obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998, it is necessary for the appellate court to undertake its…
Jun 09, 2022
Northumberland County Council (NCC) has “lost its way over a number of years to the extent that leadership at both political and managerial levels is distracted, and no longer focussed on external issues but involved to an unhealthy extent on internal battles”, an independent governance review of…
Jun 09, 2022
Northumberland County Council is to convene its Employment Appeals Committee (EAC) to try to get to the bottom of how unlawful spending took place on a healthcare consultancy business and an allowance for its chief executive.
Jun 09, 2022
Landlords with smaller property portfolios are the least likely to be compliant with legal requirements on lettings, research for the government has found.
Jun 09, 2022
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities finalised the principles for awarding the first round of £1.7bn of Levelling Up funds only once ministers knew the identities and scores of shortlisted bidders, the Public Accounts Committee has said in a scathing report.
Jun 09, 2022
A long-serving council chief executive has quit weeks after he issued a derogatory tweet about the Conservative party.
Jun 09, 2022
A Liverpool landlord has won one of two appeals he made over final notices served under Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004.
Jun 09, 2022
Trafford Council was at fault for delays in arranging funding for a man's residential care which led to him depleting his savings and racking up a large debt, an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Jun 08, 2022
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has updated its guidance on when it will inform local authorities of the likely failure of a care provider, after a High Court judge found the regulator had unlawfully attempted to use new guidance to lower the threshold for notification.
Jun 08, 2022
Ministers have, in attacking judges, “sometimes failed to act in a constitutionally proper or in a helpful manner”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Democracy and the Constitution has said.
Jun 08, 2022
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is to have the power to issue unlimited fines under the Social Housing Regulation Bill introduced to Parliament today (8 June 2022).
Jun 08, 2022
The largest further education college group in London has appointed law firm Shakespeare Martineau to a contract for the provision of legal services worth an estimated £1m.
Jun 08, 2022
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has said it still has "significant reservations" over proposals to adopt imperial measurements in response to a Government consultation on the issue.
Jun 07, 2022
The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill, which is intended to embed the principle of social partnership in the operation of public bodies in Wales, has been laid before the Senedd Cymru.
Jun 07, 2022
The Government’s Open Innovation Team (OIT) is to launch a new service aimed at helping public bodies to comply with the Public Sector Equalities Duty (PSED).
Jun 07, 2022
The Housing Ombudsman handed out more complaint handling failure orders (CHFOs) between January and March 2022 than any other previous quarter, according to a quarterly report.
