PLC Public Sector reports: 

Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions.

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PLC Public Sector reports:

The recent decision of the High Court in Daventry District Council v Daventry & District Housing Limited is a reminder for parties of the importance of ensuring that contract terms properly reflect their understanding of what has been agreed.

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PLC Public Sector reports: 

Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions.

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PLC Public Sector reports:

So it might still be August but the days are getting shorter, the evenings cooler and those lawyers left in the office are beginning to turn their minds to the implementation of the behemoth that is the Equality Act 2010, parts of which will begin to come into force from October 1 2010.

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PLC Public Sector reports: 

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PLC Public Sector reports:

There has been considerable publicity surrounding local government’s use of the surveillance powers contained in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), see our March 2009 opinion “To snoop or not to snoop”.

Although the coalition government has indicated that it proposes to carry out a review of RIPA, with a view to limiting local authorities’ use of the Act to stopping serious crime and imposing a requirement on local authorities to make an application to a magistrate’s court to use RIPA, the outcome of that review will not be announced before Autumn 2010 and will then require the appropriate legislation to be passed. The practicality, and cost implications, of local authorities having to make an application to a magistrate’s court each time they wish to conduct covert surveillance, in addition to meeting the test of “serious crime” (assuming the definition in RIPA is retained), will be a blog discussion for another day once the outcome of the review is published. 

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PLC Public Sector reports: 

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PLC Public Sector reports:

We recently attended a meeting of the SLG London and Homes Counties information/data protection special interest group.  The group was very well attended and clearly provides an excellent forum for those working in local government to discuss information law issues. 

Present at the meeting was a representative from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), enacting the general ICO approach of providing assistance to those public authorities that take their information law obligations seriously, by being happy to join in the discussions on the issues that group members raised.  In particular, he gave one piece of advice that could save some authorities a lot of time and resources when responding to FOIA requests.

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