The Cabinet Office has issued a procurement policy note (PPN) reminding contracting authorities of the options available to them when undertaking procurements in an emergency.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had to outsource legal services for its Test and Trace (T&T) programme last year because the Government Legal Department's resources were "increasingly being redeployed towards EU Exit", it has emerged.

The Law Society has called on the Government to protect leaseholders from the costs of making their homes safe from potentially deadly cladding.

One of the largest social landlords in the UK, Sovereign Housing Association, is to procure a legal services framework worth an estimated £13.6m.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) allows a council to reject a planning application because of an adverse impact on an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The threat of a legal dispute between Colchester Borough Council and Essex County Council has emerged over a proposed development for the site of the town’s former bus station.

A group of parents who permanently educate their children at home has raised £4,700 to try to take Portsmouth City Council to judicial review.

A local campaign group claims to have forced Powys County Council to reverse planning permission for a huge poultry farm after winning permission for a judicial review.

One of the leading children lawyers in the country, Piers Pressdee QC, has joined 4PB with immediate effect.

Arrears in the housing sector have reached a record high, with more than £1bn now outstanding, according to the latest HouseMark COVID-19 impact data.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched a consultation on its proposed new approach to subsidy control in the UK.

Ward Hadaway has extended its social housing offering with the appointment of a director in its Manchester office.

The BBC has been fined £28,000 after it made a video and audio recording of a half day’s hearing in the Planning Court.

Bromley County Court has released a tenant of social landlord Peabody Trust who served six days in prison for breaching a civil injunction imposed after breaches of Covid regulations on gatherings.

The New Forest National Park Authority last month obtained a High Court injunction to prevent further damage to an area of protected woodland in the National Park.

The owner of an East London restaurant, popular with celebrity TV stars and Premier League footballers, has been stripped of its licence by Redbridge Council for not complying with licensing conditions.

A High Court judge has granted the London Borough of Islington a possession order for a development site where protesters are occupying a copse scheduled for destruction.

The Court of Appeal has rejected appeals by a local authority and a children's guardian against a Family Court judge’s decision to refuse an application for placement orders in respect of two children.

Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick has appointed an Improvement and Assurance Panel to address what he described as “serious failures” at Croydon Council.

A High Court judge has dismissed a judicial review challenge to the London Borough of Newham’s decision to declare invalid a petition seeking a referendum to change the governance model of the council.

Cornerstone Barristers has expelled Jon Holbrook in a row over a tweet on 17 January from his personal account in which he claimed that “the Equality Act undermines school discipline by empowering the stroppy teenager of colour", although the public law specialist says he had already resigned.

The largest affordable housing provider in the North West, Torus, has issued a contract notice for a legal services framework worth an estimated £5m.

Hugh James has bolstered its employment team with the hire of public services specialist Christine Bradbury as a Senior Associate.

The number of legal professionals contacting the charity LawCare for emotional support rose sharply in 2020, with a rise of 9% on the previous year.

Two men involved in organising a mass snowball fight in Leeds in breach of coronavirus restrictions have each been given £10,000 fines.

A local group has issued a legal claim to try to overturn South Oxfordshire District Council’s Local Plan, which was adopted under pressure from Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick.

Independent traders in a Bristol street have threatened legal action against the city council over a pedestrianisation plan.

Reasons given by Reading Magistrates’ Court for deciding that the prosecution in a planning enforcement case had complied with the six months' time limit in s127 of Magistrates Courts Act 1980 cannot be upheld, the Divisional Court has ruled.

Leeds City Council did not err when it gave planning permission for a large mixed-use retail-led development next to an Asda store, the Court of Appeal has found.

Three members of Andover Town Council are expected to issue a judicial review challenge against it in a complex dispute over staffing and the conduct of meetings.

An Upper Tribunal judge has granted an asylum seeker a declaration that he was 15 at the age he entered into the country and when he was assessed by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council, rather than over 18 and more likely 20 as the local authority concluded.

It was lawful and in the best interests of an 80-year-old care home resident with dementia and schizophrenia to be vaccinated against Covid-19 despite the objections of her son, the Vice-President of the Court of Protection has ruled.

A landlord has been ordered to pay more than £9,400 after he continued to let a flat – a former bank vault – which inspectors had classed as illegal and dangerous.

Specialist public law firm Sharpe Pritchard has appointed Rob Hann as its Head of Local Government.

A voter would be able to apply for an emergency proxy vote where, in the period ahead of the poll for the next Senedd election, a voter or their already nominated proxy becomes unable to participate in person on the day of the poll because of a reason relating to coronavirus, such as the need to…

The planning, commercial and public law practices at 39 Essex Chambers have been bolstered by the arrival of Juan Lopez, who joins with immediate effect.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and Kent County Council are at loggerheads over an investigation into the handling of a 'cross-border' child protection case.

A group of 31 Metropolitan Police officers are facing a £200 fixed penalty notice after breaching Covid-19 regulations while on duty, the police force has revealed.

A High Court judge has ruled out joining a relinquished child and seeking the assistance of the Romanian consular authorities to track the father down.

The Supreme Court will this week hear a dispute over whether a claimant in statutory and judicial review cases who is unsuccessful at the permission stage should be liable for the costs of multiple other parties, including respondents and interested parties.

A High Court judge has upheld a district council’s decision not to backdate a council tax discount due to severe mental health impairment (SMI) to the date where symptoms were first diagnosed.

The phrases "personally seen" in s. 11(5) of the Mental Health Act 1983 and "personally examined" in s. 12(1) require the physical attendance of the person in question on the patient, the Divisional Court has clarified.

Law firm Winckworth Sherwood has advised Prudential Trustee Company as noteholder trustee on the charging of 1,699 homes owned and managed by South West housing association LiveWest Homes.

The Government has this month launced a consultation on a new ‘Right to Regenerate’ which would enable the public to require councils and the public sector in England to sell unused land and assets.

LLG (Lawyers in Local Government) and ADSO (the Association of Democratic Services Officers) have instructed counsel to advise on whether remote meetings can continue to be held, without the need for primary legislation, when the regulations introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic come to an end.

The organiser of a wedding in north London is facing a £10,000 fine after police found hundreds of people packed together in breach of Covid regulations.

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has been fined £330,000 after a five-year-old girl died when playground equipment collapsed on top of her at Mile End Park.

A judge has accused a borough council of “breathtaking incompetence”, and severely criticised a social worker, in a case where a boy was left in a “thoroughly corrosive” foster placement for nine months longer than he should have been.

The Welsh Government has said it will seek the Senedd’s consent next week (27 January) for an emergency bill to be introduced aimed at ensuring the next Senedd election happens safely.

A teenager has failed in a judicial review of how information on her was shared between Sussex Police and the Brighton & Hove Business Crime Reduction Partnership.

Salford City Council will seek to delay a High Court case for six months to try to allow for settlement of a lengthy dispute with a developer.

A woman who managed, after the locks were changed, to re-enter temporary accommodation being provided by a property firm for a council was a trespasser and had no right to stay, Chelmsford County Court has ruled.

Law firm Burges Salmon has been appointed to a £642,950 contract to advise North Somerset Council on a major transport scheme.

A High Court judge has granted a company permission to bring judicial review proceedings in relation to a decision by The Royal Parks Limited (TRP) not to grant it an extension to a concession contract for the operation of boating facilities in Hyde Park, on the Serpentine and in Greenwich Park.

London’s taxi trade has hailed High Court rulings in which it won on four out of five grounds under which it challenged Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Streetspace plan.

A London borough was not entitled to refuse to assess the needs of young Vietnamese woman on the basis of a preliminary assessment of age carried out by another council, a Deputy High Court judge has ruled.

A former councillor at the London Borough of Redbridge has been jailed for electoral offences and banned from holding elected office for five years.

The Official Solicitor has won an appeal on behalf of a 30-year-old with autism and communication difficulties over whether his mother and step-father had a reasonable excuse during the first national lockdown to leave their homes to provide him with care.

Sharpe Pritchard is working with CommercialGov to provide a commercial governance masterclass for the Local Government Association.

Buildings operated by HM Courts and Tribunals Service are safe for those that need to use them, the organisation's acting chief executive has insisted.