Michelmores Local Government Alert

Michelmores Local Government Alert

Welcome to the Michelmores Local Government Alert, where we bring you a round-up of the latest news and legal developments affecting Local Government.  We hope that you find this useful and welcome your feedback. 

Please contact us with any comments or queries. 

Items in this issue include:

Central Government:  
DCLG: New burdens doctrine: guidance issued for Government

Education:
DfE produces new guidance for teachers to improve school discipline

YPLA notifies colleges and schools of bursary scheme for 16-19 year olds

School's uniform policy unlawful

Employment: 
Draft minimum wage regulations published

Environment:
New Private Members' Bill proposed: minimum distance for wind turbines from homes

DEFRA announces results of Waste Policy Review

FOI and Data Protection:
Government departments commit to improve FOI response times

Procurement: 
Court of Appeal dismisses appeal for breach of Public Contracts Regs 2006

Property and Planning:
DCLG publishes draft presumption in favour of sustainable development

DCLG publishes updated plain English Localism Guide

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Central Government

DCLG: New burdens doctrine: guidance issued for Government

The new burdens doctrine is part of a suite of measures to ensure council tax payers do not face excessive increases.  This includes the council tax freeze which has been delivered this year and (subject to the passing of the Localism Bill) the introduction of council tax referendums in 2012-13.  The guidance sets out how lead departments will be identified and the processes to be followed in all cases.

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Education

DfE produces new guidance for teachers to improve school discipline

The Department for Education has published the final, clearer guidance for teachers on how they should deal with bad behaviour. This guidance will be used by schools from the start of the new academic year this coming September.

YPLA notifies colleges and schools of bursary scheme for 16-19 year olds

The YPLA has written to all local authorities asking them to play a key role in the distribution of the new 16-19 year old bursary fund.  Duties include passing the fund directly to local authority maintained sixth form schools and distributing allocations to other providers.

School's uniform policy unlawful

In G v Head Teacher and Governors of St Gregory's Catholic Science College the High Court found that the school's policy prohibiting boys from wearing their hair in corn rows was unlawful on the grounds of indirect racial discrimination.  The Court decided that family and social customs can form part of ethnicity within the scope of the race discrimination legislation.  The claim of sex discrimination however, failed.

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Employment

Draft minimum wage regulations published

The Government has published draft regulations to increase the national minimum wage.  The new regulations will come into force in October 2011.

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Environment

New Private Members' Bill proposed: minimum distance for wind turbines from homes

The House of Lords has had its second reading of the Bill which provides that planning permission for wind turbines that are a closer than a minimum distance from residential dwellings should be refused.

DEFRA announces results of Waste Policy Review

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced the results of its review of waste policy in England.  The policy review sets out an aim to move to zero-waste but does not deal with a definition of 'waste'.

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FOI and Data Protection

Government departments commit to improve FOI response times

The Information Commissioner's Office has secured undertakings from the Cabinet, Ministry of Defence and Birmingham City Council in relation to improving response times to FOI requests.  The ICO has confirmed it will not be taking regulatory action for the prior failure to respond to FOI requests but will take action should the three bodies fail to comply with the undertakings.

Monitoring Compliance

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Procurement

Court of Appeal dismisses appeal for breach of Public Contracts Regs 2006

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by J Varney & Sons which claimed Hertfordshire County Council failed to disclose criteria, sub-criteria and weightings which it applied in a tender assessment.  The Court found that under EU law the Council were not required to disclose the weightings applicable to sub-criteria when evaluating tenders.

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Property and Planning

DCLG publishes draft presumption in favour of sustainable development

This draft wording of the presumption in favour of sustainable development is published to give an early indication of the Government's intentions, but is not a formal consultation. The presumption will be at the heart of the new National Planning Policy Framework, on which Ministers plan to consult formally in July.

DCLG publishes updated plain English Localism Guide

The Plain English Guide to the Localism Bill describes the main measures of the Bill under four headings: new freedoms and flexibilities for local government; new rights and powers for communities and individuals; reform to make the planning system more democratic and more effective; and reform to ensure that decisions about housing are taken locally.  This document is designed to give an overview only and replaces the version published in January 2011

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Michelmores News and Events

Poignant tribute rounds off awards event

Social media in the workplace
http://www.michelmores.com/social-media-in-the-workplace-publication.htm

Meet Martyn Lewis - in aid of Hospiscare

Read more news and events:

http://www.michelmores.com/Diary.htm
http://www.michelmores.com/news.htm

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We hope that you have found this Local Government Alert useful. We welcome your feedback: please let us know what you thought of this newsletter and if there are any areas that you would like us to include in future issues.
For further information on any of these areas, please contact us.

Graham Cridland
Partner, Planning/Commercial Property
Tel: 01392 687540
Email: graham.cridland@michelmores.com

Sally Rice
Partner, Commercial Property
Tel: 01392 687511
Email: sally.rice@michelmores.com