Authority Update

Legal intelligence for professionals in local government.

This update contains brief details of recent Government publications, legislation, cases and other developments relevant to those involved in local government work, which have been published in the previous two weeks. Items are set out by subject, with a link to where the full document can be found on the internet.

If you have been forwarded this update by a colleague and would like to receive it direct please email Claire Booth.

All links are correct at the date of publication. The following topics are covered in this update:  

Adult Social Services	Highways
Benefits	Housing
Children's Services	Insurance
Consultation	Maladministration
Education	Parish Councils
Emergency Planning	Project Finance
Finance	Public Health
Fire and Rescue Authorities	Regulation
Localism Act 2011 Commencement Table
Bevan Brittan's Local Government Training Programme

  

Adult Social Services

DH: Developing the use of direct payments in residential care: the DH is calling for expressions of interest from local authorities that would like to be involved in developing the use of direct payments in residential care. The closing date for submissions is 5 October 2012. (24 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Caraline Johnson.

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Benefits

DWP: Freud names local authority pilot long-list for Universal Credit: announces the 15  local authorities recommended as potential pilot sites for Universal Credit. The pilots will focus on delivering the face to face support some people may need to make claims for Universal Credit, including online support, help with budgeting and job searches, reducing fraud and error, and reducing homelessness. DWP will now draw up a shortlist of those that will go ahead in the Autumn. (20 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Olwen Dutton.

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Children's Services 

DfE: Repeal of the duty on Ofsted to conduct an annual Children’s Services Assessment of each local authority in England: announces that the Government has apporved theLegislative Reform (Annual Review of Local Authorities) Order 2012 (SI 2012/1879) that repeals s.138 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 so that Ofsted will no longer be required to produce an annual assessment of each local authority’s children’s services. Ofsted has already put in place a new, universal, child-focused inspection regime for local authority services for the protection of children. A new inspection regime for local authority fostering, adoption and looked after children’s services will be introduced early in 2013, and a new, multi-inspectorate child protection inspection framework will follow in mid-2013. (18 July 2012)

DCLG: Listening to troubled families - A report by Louise Casey CB: this report highlights the chaotic personal histories of the kinds of families who will be targeted as part of the Government's commitment to turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families by 2015. Louise Casey's early conclusions are that a whole-family approach is often best for dealing with multiple and inter-linked problems rather than approaches that deal with single problems or single individuals within a household.(18 July 2012)

DfE: Childcare Commission - call for evidence: DfE and DWP have set up a Commission on Childcare that will look at how to make childcare more affordable for working families and reduce any unnecessary burdens on providers. It seeks the views of parents, early years professionals and others with an interest in childcare on how to help improve the accessibility and affordability of childcare. This evidence will inform the Commission's report that is scheduled to be published in the autumn. The closing date for comments is 31 August 2012. (19 July 2012)

DfE: Consultation on the review of contact arrangements for children in care and adopted children and on the placement of sibling groups for adoption: the Government has published two discussion papers seeking views on two aspects of the care and adoption systems:

• contact between children in care or who have been adopted and their birth parents, setting out the case for changes to the law to help ensure that contact arrangements serve the best interests of children by contributing to the plan for their permanent care; and
• the placement of sibling groups for adoption, contending that decisions about whether to place siblings together should be made on the basis of the best interests of each individual child and taking full account of the advantages and disadvantages.

The closing date for comments on either paper is 31 August 2012. (20 July 2012)

DH: New grants to support children’s hospice and hospice at home services: announces a further £721,000 available to support new children hospices in England, in addition to the existing annual revenue grant of £10m. The new grant is available for voluntary sector organisations that are providing children’s hospice and hospice at home services to children and young people between 0-19 years old. The closing date for applications is 16 September 2012. (20 July 2012)

Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children (Wales) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1674 (W.215)): these regulations, which came into force in Wales on 28 June 2012, prescribe how local authorities must carry out their duty under para.6 of Sch.2 to the Children Act 1989 to provide short breaks for the carers of disabled children in their area. (26 June 2012)

R (TT) v Merton LBC [2012] EWHC 2055 (Admin) (Admin Ct): TT applied for judicial review of the Council's policy relating to the financial assistance to be given to special guardians. TT was the special guardian of a 4 year old boy, C, who was the half-brother of TT's granddaughter. The Government had issued Special Guardianship statutory guidance that included advice that "in determining the amount of any ongoing financial support, the local authority should have regard to the amount of fostering allowance which would have been payable if the child were fostered. The local authority's core allowance plus any enhancement that would be payable in respect of the particular child, will make up the maximum payment the local authority could consider paying the family. Any means test carried out as appropriate to the circumstances would use this maximum payment as a basis". The Council's adopted policy stated that "children who are the subject of Special Guardianship Orders are not looked after children, they have become part of the family unit. The additional costs for a looked after child are therefore not applicable to a child in a Special Guardianship arrangement. The Local Authority therefore adjusts the figures given by the Fostering Network and takes 2/3 of this as the figure which will be required to look after a child of that age. This deducts the additional 50% which is allowed for by the Fostering Network". TT contended that when formulating this policy, the Council had failed to have proper regard for the amount of fostering allowance which would have been payable if C were fostered, as required by the statutory guidance, and that it had adopted a flawed method of assessing her means for the purpose of arriving at any deductions that fell to be made from the allowance.
The court held, granting the application, that where a local authority proposed to have a policy that set the allowance to be paid to special guardians, it had to comply with the statutory guidance and so consider the Fostering Network's minimum recommended allowances and make such adjustments to those allowances to reflect the (lower) costs to a special guardian as it considered appropriate. Compliance was not achieved by ignoring the additional costs of caring for a child not born into the family or assessing them at nil. The Council had produced no reasons, cogent or otherwise, for not complying with the guidance, therefore the decision to adopt a level of allowance for special guardians of two thirds of the Fostering Network's minimum allowances was unlawful and must be quashed. The Council had departed from the means test suggested and adopted an approach less favourable to special guardians. However, the DfE's model means test did not carry the same weight as the statutory guidance and the differences adopted by the Council, even when taken cumulatively, were not ones that no reasonable local authority could have taken. (25 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Caraline Johnson.

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Consultation

Cabinet Office: Consultation principles - guidance: sets out the principles that Government departments and other public bodies should adopt for engaging stakeholders when developing policy and legislation. It states that the governing principle is proportionality of the type and scale of consultation to the potential impacts of the proposal or decision being taken, and that thought should be given to achieving real engagement rather than following bureaucratic process. In particular, it advises that the timeframe for consultation should be proportionate and realistic to allow stakeholders sufficient time to provide a considered response, and might typically vary between two and 12 weeks. It also sets out the circumstances where consultation may not be not appropriate. This guidance replaces the Code of Practice on Consultation issued in July 2008 but does not take precedence over statutory or mandatory consultation requirements. (17 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Peter Keith-Lucas.

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Education

DfE: Replacing LACSEG - Funding academies and local authorities for the functions that devolve to academies: seeks views on proposals to replace the Local Authority Central Spend Equivalent Grant (LACSEG) that is paid to academies to cover the cost of the services that local authorities provide centrally to maintained schools but which academies must secure independently. It sets out plans for new simple and transparent national funding arrangements for the central education services that devolve to academies, including a new grant for local authorities and Academies that would be calculated on a transparent national basis and paid to local authorities and academies according to the number of pupils for which they are responsible. The consultation closes on 24 September 2012. (17 July 2012) 

DfE: More new Free Schools than ever before to raise standards and increase choice: announces the 102 successful applicants that have been granted approval  to progress to the implementation stage of the Free Schools process, to open in 2013 and beyond. These include five special Free Schools and 12 Alternative Provision Free Schools. There is a list on the DfE website. (13 July 2012)

Pupil Referral Units (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1825): these regulations, which mainly come into force on 1 September 2012, amends SI 2007/2978 so as to give the SoS power to direct a local authority to close a PRU requiring significant  improvement, and to constitute the management committee of a PRU so that it consists of interim executive members if the PRU requires significant improvement or special measures, or where the SoS considers it to be underperforming. They also amend regulations on the closure of PRUs to take account of this change, and amend the definition and eligibility criteria of PRU management committee “community members”.  (13 July 2012)

Education (School Government) (Terms of Reference) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1845): these regulations, which come into force on 1 September 2012, omit reg.8 of SI 2000/2122 so as to remove the obligation on head teachers of maintained schools to produce a curriculum policy and review it yearly. (17 July 2012)

Academies (Land Transfer Schemes) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1829): Part 1 of the new Sch.1 to the Academies Act 2010 (inserted by the Education Act 2011) enables the SoS to make a scheme to transfer local authority land that a local authority has identified as a possible site for a new school, or existing or former school land that is no longer needed for the school, from a local authority to a person concerned with running an academy. These regulations, which come into force on 3 August 2012, set out the documents and information that a local authority must provide, and the steps it must take, where the SoS makes such a scheme for the transfer of school land. (13 July 2012)

School Governance (Transition from an Interim Executive Board) (Wales) Regulations 2012 (SI 2102/1643 (W.212)): these regulations, wich come into force in Wales on 1 September 2012, provide for the transition of a school’s governing body from being constituted as an interim executive board in accordance with Sch.1A to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to being a governing body constituted in accordance with s.19(1) of the Education Act 2002. (26 June 2012)

Education (Induction Arrangements for School Teachers) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1675 (W.216)): these regulations, which come into force in Wales on 1 September 2012, amend SI 2005/1818 regarding induction arrangements for teachers. In particular, they amend the length of an induction period that must be served so that teachers who serve an induction period by completing periods of employment of less than one school term or two consecutive half terms must serve 380 school sessions (equivalent to three school terms).  They also remove the requirement for periods of employment to be of at least one term or two consecutive half terms and amend the supervision and training requirements during the induction period. (28 June 2012)

Education (Middle Schools) (Wales) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1797 (W.227)): these regulations, which come into force in Wales on 1 September 2012, specify the circumstances in which a middle school is to be treated as either a primary or secondary school for Education Act purposes. They revoke and replace SI 1980918. (10 June 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Caraline Johnson.

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Emergency Planning

DH:  Local Health Resilience Partnerships - resource pack: this pack supports the roll-out of Local Health Resilience Partnerships - non statutory bodies that will provide strategic forums for joint planning for emergencies for the new health system and will support the health sector’s contribution to multi-agency planning through Local Resilience Forums. The new arrangements for local health emergency preparedness, resilience and response come in on 1 April 2013 under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The pack includes a summary of the principal roles of health sector organisations, model Membership and Terms of Reference and model Concept of Operations. (26 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Olwen Dutton.

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Finance

DCLG: Business rates retention - Technical consultation: seeks views on a range of detailed technical issues concerning practical implementation of the Business Rates Retention proposals. It focuses on how the Government proposes to calculate local authority start-up funding allocations, baseline funding levels as well as other parameters which are required for the setup and operation of the Business Rates Retention scheme. The consultation closes on 24 September 2012. (17 July 2012)
DCLG has published a number of other papers alongside this consultation:

• Pooling prospectus: sets out the opportunities that pooling presents for local authorities under the Business Rates Retention scheme and the process for formally designating pools. It invites local authorities to come forward with their pooling proposals by 27 July 2012;
• Business Rates Retention - A step-by-step guide: how the Business Rates Retention scheme will be set up and will operate, including how the central and local share will operate and how levy and safety net payments will be calculated;
• A Plain English guide to Business Rates Retention: explains why the Government is changing the system, how the scheme will work in practice and what the proposals will mean for residents, businesses and authorities.

DCLG: Government Resource Review - Proposals for business rates retention: Technical paper on Tax Increment Financing and new development deals: sets out the Government's policy on Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and how it will work within the new local Rates Retention scheme under the Local Government Finance Bill. (17 July 2012)

DCLG: Localising support for council tax - Draft Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) Regulations: these draft regulations set out the additional requirements, including classes of persons, which must or must not be included in a Council Tax Reduction Scheme, so as to ensure that each billing authority’s scheme contains certain administrative provisions relating to all schemes and provision ensuring support for pensioners in financial need. 

DCLG: Localising support for council tax - Draft Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Default Scheme) Regulations: s.13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 requires each billing authority in England to make a scheme specifying the reductions which are to apply to amounts of council tax payable by persons, or classes of person, whom the authority considers are in financial need. The Secretary of State must prescribe a “default scheme” that takes effect if the authority fails to make its own scheme on or before 31 January 2013. These draft regulations set out the Default Council Tax Reduction Scheme under the Act. (17 July 2012)
Both sets of draft regulations are issued for informal consultation, and DCLG welcomes feedback - see the Explanatory Note to the draft regulations. (17 July 2012)

DCLG: Council Tax Information Letter 1/2012: Service personnel and second homes: this letter reminds local authorities of the position regarding service personnel to ensure that they are treated fairly and not disadvantaged when applying for a council tax second homes discount. (17 July 2012)

DCLG: Council Tax Information Letter 2/2012 - Potential council tax discount on empty homes: this information letter provides clarification on the proposed discounts for properties that are unoccupied and unfurnished. (27 July 2012)

Hunt v North Somerset Council [2012] EWHC 1928 (Admin) (Admin Ct): H, who suffered from ADHD and had learning difficulties, applied for an order quashing an item of the Council's Revenue Budget 2012/13 relating to financial provision for youth services. The Budget decision proposed a reduction in expenditure on youth services of £364,793 in the year 2012/13, which would be achieved by the Council ceasing to provide many youth services directly and also ceasing to finance some or all of those services. H contended that in reaching its decision, the Council had failed to comply with s.507B of the Education Act 1996 (duty to secure access for young persons to leisure-time activities) and related statutuory guidance, and that it had failed to comply with its Public Sector Equality Duty under s.149 of the Equality Act 2010.
The court held, dismissing the application, that by approving the Budget proposal that could lead to the closure of youth services, the Council was exercising a function under s.507B as it was making a decision which had a direct impact, at least potentially, upon the sufficiency of positive leisure-time activities and facilities for qualifying young persons. It was therefore obliged by s.507B(9) to take steps to ascertain the views of qualifying young persons about those matters and to take account of those views before approving its Revenue Budget. On the evidence, the Council  had taken steps to ascertain the views of qualifying young persons and it had taken such views as were offered into account before approving the policy document. There was no legal obligation on the Council to repeat the process of seeking to ascertain the views of young persons, given the short period of time which elapsed between the adoption of the policy and the Budget decision, and there was no important change of circumstances within that time frame which called for separate consideration. The Equality impact Assessment identified those budget proposals which had a high impact on service users, it dealt explicitly and in detail with the impact of the reduction in the youth service budget, it referred explicitly to impact upon a number of the protected characteristics itemised in s.149(7) of the 2010 Act, it set out the information upon which it based its conclusions, and it set out the steps to be taken to minimise or mitigate that impact. The members therefore were provided with sufficient information so as to enable them to comply with their statutory duty under s.149 and they did have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty when they reached their decision to approve the Revenue Budget.
Obiter: If the Council had been found to have acted unlawfully, the court could have granted any remedy which was appropriate and it would not have been constrained by s.66 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which requires the court to quash the calculation which was the subject of the challenge. A quashing of one component of the Revenue Budget did not mean that the Council had set its Council Tax without making the calculations required by the 1992 Act - the one did not follow from the other. The position would be that the Council would have complied with its statutory duty to undertake calculations before setting the Council Tax but that thereafter a minor component of the calculation had been quashed. The court should be very slow to interpret the 1992 Act in such a manner so as to frustrate legitimate challenges to the decision-making process leading to the approval of local authority budgets and/or the setting of Council Tax as a consequence of the approval of such budgets. (18 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Jon Coane.

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Fire and Rescue Authorities

Fire and Rescue Authorities (National Framework) (England) Order 2012 (SI 2012/1886): s.21 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 requires the SoS to prepare a Fire and Rescue National Framework setting out the priorities and objectives for fire and rescue authorities in England, and also guidance and other matters relating to fire and rescue authorities or their functions. Fire and rescue authorities are required to have regard to the Framework in carrying out their functions. This Order, which comes into force on 17 August 2012, gives effect to the Framework that was published on 11 July 2012 as a revision of the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008/11. (19 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Olwen Dutton.

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Highways

Pusey v Somerset CC [2012] EWCA Civ 988 (CA): P, who were farmers and landowners, appealed against the dismissal of their claim against the Council for damages for nuisance. P alleged that the use of a strip of  land on the highway adjacent to their land as a lay-by had materially interfered with their reasonable use and enjoyment of their property and formed an actionable private nuisance. The use they complained about included noise, fumes and anti-social behaviour. The Council argued that the only activity that had taken place on the strip was ancillary to the lawful use of the highway. It also contended that it had a statutory duty to assert and protect the lawful use of the highway under s.130 of the Highways Act 1980, and that the right of the public to use the highway was not limited to passing and re-passing over it but included the right to stop and park; therefore activities which constituted the lawful use of the highway (e.g. vehicle noise from lorries parking and re-starting their engines) could not amount to an actionable nuisance even if audible to P. The judge decided that no actionable nuisance had been proved and that activities on the lay-by did not amount to an unreasonable interference with P's use and enjoyment of their own land. P appealed, contending that the judge had  erred.
The court held, dismissing the appeal, that the judge had been right to have mentioned the local support for the lay-by as part of the history because it was relevant to a consideration of subsequent events; however, he was well able to dissociate the merits of the lay-by from an objective consideration of what actually occurred on siteand there was no suggestion  that he wrongly took into account the balance of public interest. Setting a threshold was not a legitimate means of establishing whether the degree of interference which the claimant had experienced amounted to an actionable nuisance; however, the judge had not applied one in this case. His summary of the frequency of the parking, swearing, urination and the other incidents complained of was undertaken in order to assess the overall level of activity and its effect upon P's reasonable enjoyment of their property. Nor had the judge been misled by his analysis of the frequency and duration of the individual incidents into assessing their effect in isolation from each other rather than by considering the cumulative effect of what occurred. (19 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Steven Eccles.

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Housing

Allocation of Housing (Qualification Criteria for Armed Forces) (England) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1869): these regulations, which come into force on 24 August 2012, provide that where a local housing authority uses a local connection requirement as a criterion to decide whether a class of persons are qualifying persons for an allocation of housing accommodation, they must not apply that criterion to certain persons who are in or connected to the armed forces. (19 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact David Isaacson.

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Insurance

DWP: £300m support for future mesothelioma victims: announces a new support scheme for newly diagnosed victims of mesothelioma. The scheme will enable those who develop diffuse mesothelioma as a result of negligent exposure to asbestos at work and who are unable claim compensation because they cannot trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer, to receive approximately £300m in payments in the first 10 years. The scheme is subject to primary legislation being passed; however, Ministers and the ABI have agreed that anyone diagnosed with mesothelioma from 25 July 2012 will be eligible to make a claim. Membership of the Employers’ Liability Tracing Office will be compulsory for all employers’ liability insurers. The Government is also introducing new measures to speed up the process of receiving compensation for all mesothelioma victims, including a levy on current employers’ liability insurers to fund the scheme at an estimated cost of £25m - £35m a year and changes to the Civil Procedure Rules to support the use of a mesothelioma pre-action protocol to ensure that evidence is disclosed early. (25 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Adrian Neale.

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Maladministration

HC Communities and Local Government Committee: Local Government Ombudsman: this report critically examines the role and efficacy of the LGO, focusing on whether the LGO is providing the service to the public which the legislation requires and the taxpayer expects. It finds that the LGO needs to carry out a significant number of changes, including: 

• tackle the inefficiencies in its operations indentified by the Strategic Business Review, particularly the length of time it was taking to determine some cases;
• be completely clear with all parties about the criteria it applies in order to determine whether cases are assigned to be resolved through a mediated process to achieve redress, or are allocated for full investigation and formal determination. It must  also be transparent about the procedures that apply when any case is moved from one process to another, such as when mediation fails;
• keep a close eye on the effects of the changes on those using its services and on its staff. The Committee recommends that the LGO develops and publishes a methodology for measuring levels of customer satisfaction, and should re-institute an annual, independent staff survey and publish the results; 
• bring forward arrangements to ensure that there is an annual evaluation of the LGO by an external, independent reviewer, to ensure that it meets the criteria of independence, fairness, effectiveness, openness and transparency and accountability; and
• set out the arrangements and timetable for appointing the new Chief Operating Officer (and their responsibilities) in the response to the Committee's report.

The LGO has issued its response to the report in which it agrees that some changes need to be made to the organisation, and outlines progress with its comprehensive programme of change over the past 12 months. (17 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Olwen Dutton.

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Parish Councils

DCLG: Payments by parish and community councils and charter trustees: seeks views on a proposal to remove the statutory rule requiring cheques and other orders for the payment of money by parish councils (in England) and community councils (in Wales) to be signed by two councillors. The proposal also covers a similar rule applying to certain charter trustees in England. The Government proposes that this should be done by a legislative reform order made under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006. The paper sets out the safeguards that would apply to payments by these bodies once the two signature rule is removed. The consultation closes on 11 September 2012. (17 July 2012)

NALC: New code of conduct for parish and town councils: the NALC has published its own model Code of Conduct that local councils may adopt. The model Code includes the obligations regarding disclosable pecuniary interests that are required by the Localism Act 2011. (20 June 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Peter Keith-Lucas.

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Project Finance

HM Treasury: Government uses fiscal credibility to unveil new infrastructure investment and exports plan: the Government has launched a new UK Guarantees scheme that aims to kick start critical infrastructure projects that may have stalled because of adverse credit conditions. The scheme has three parts: 

• guarantees for up to £40bn worth of major infrastructure projects from a range of sectors including transport, utilities, energy and communications, that must be ready to start in the 12 months following a guarantee being given; 
• a new temporary lending programme for around 30 public private partnership infrastructure projects worth an estimated £6bn in the next 12 months. Projects in sectors such as transport, health, housing and education must have passed existing Government approval processes, including the usual value for money and affordability tests and be ready to proceed to financial close in all respects other than availability of project finance; and 
• a £5bn export refinancing facility that will provide long-term loans for overseas buyers of UK exports at competitive rates by guaranteeing a series of short-term bank loans. This will support sectors such as aerospace, oil and gas extraction equipment, transport and telecommunications infrastructure services, hospital construction and management services, and sports infrastructure. The export refinancing facility will be available later this year.

The UK Guarantees scheme is being run by Infrastructure UK. (18 July 2012)
Bevan Brittan has published an Alert on the implications of this announcement for public and private sector sponsors of infrastructure projects: Government unveils £40bn guarantee scheme to help deliver infrastructure projects.

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact David Hutton.

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Public Health

HC Communities and Local Government Committee: The role of local authorities in health issues: from 1 April 2013, top tier local authorities will assume responsibilities for public health, and Health and Wellbeing Boards will be established as statutory committees responsible for encouraging integrated working and joint strategies on health and wellbeing. The CLG Committee is inviting submissions from interested parties on the future role of English local authorities in health issues. The closing date for submissions is 18 October 2012. (17 July 2012)

NICE: Public health briefings for local government: NICE has developed public health briefings for local authorities and their partner organisations that provide advice on the public health actions that are most effective and provide best value for money. The first three briefings cover tobacco, workplace health and physical activity. (25 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Olwen Dutton.

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Regulation

DCLG: Fourth statement of new regulation: provides information on all regulations within the scope of Government's One-In, One-Out regime (including measures which are deregulatory) that are scheduled to come into force between 1 July and 31 December 2012, to give businesses an indication of when regulations affecting them will be coming into effect. 
See also the Update on the third statement of new regulation that gives details of the progress of each measure in the Third Statement that came into force between 1 January and 30 June 2012. (17 July 2012)

If you wish to discuss any of the items noted in this section please contact Peter Keith-Lucas.

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Bevan Brittan's Local Government Training Programme

Bevan Brittan has developed a well-recognised programme of training designed to assist local authorities in successfully implementing legal change. Led by key members of our local authority team, each session will clearly explain the key aspects of the law and the implications for local government. Using case studies and carefully selected complementary speakers, they will assist attendees in realising the full benefits of implementation and the dangerous pitfalls in failure to act.

For more details on our training programme or information on tailored training to meet your authority's requirements, please contact our Events team.

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