The appointment of 114 new Queen’s Counsel was announced today with a record number of successful BAME applicants and a significant number of Court of Protection and Child Protection Lawyers taking silk.

The General Pharmaceutical Council has selected law firm Blake Morgan to provide legal services to its fitness to practice team under a contract worth an estimated £3m.

The Department for Education has called on directors of children’s services to review the processes for recruiting adopters to ensure their councils are compliant with the legislative framework on who can adopt.

The 'Ask Italian' restaurant chain – part of the Azzuri Restaurants group – has been fined £40,000 by Swansea Magistrates after pleading guilty to an offence under the Food Safety Act 1990.

The Government has launched a Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) bringing together law enforcement agencies, environmental regulators, HMRC and the National Crime Agency from across the UK to target waste criminals.

Legal mental health and wellbeing charity LawCare and academics at the University of Sheffield and The Open University have launched a free, online resource for legal professionals in hopes of teaching better wellbeing practices in the sector.

A judge has awarded costs against Birmingham Children’s Trust (BCT) and NHS Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) after what he called their “wholesale failure” in a case of a young man with severe epilepsy.

Cardiff Council has handed a councillor a four months suspension after an investigation by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

A council significantly delayed completing an assessment of a complainant's social care needs, failed to complete a support plan before reducing his personal budget and failed to properly involve him in the assessment and support planning process, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has…

A local resident has seen all four grounds for judicial review rejected in her challenge to Shropshire Council’s planning consent for a sand and gravel extraction project.

The Wellbeing Committee of the Family Court at Birmingham has introduced a protocol this month with a view to professionals, practitioners, court staff and members of the judiciary being able to benefit from increased wellbeing, a reduction in unnecessary stress and the achievement of a better work…

A major criminal investigation undertaken from 2004 to 2005 that uncovered the systematic exploitation of looked after children mainly in the care system in the city of Manchester, led to very few positive criminal justice outcomes, an independent review has found.

The Campaign To Protect Rural England (CPRE) has lost an attempt to stop Herefordshire Council’s decision to grant permission for 11 blocks of polytunnels.

A company that operated a former nightclub where a customer died in a fall, has been ordered to pay £24,000 in fines and costs.

An unincorporated association does have capacity to bring both a judicial review and a statutory challenge, a High Court judge has ruled.

A Scottish housing association is to appoint a single provider to a legal services contract worth an estimated £700,000 over five years.

The London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames has agreed to carry out a full audit of its education provision and pay £17,500 to three families after the Local Government Ombudsman strongly criticised the council’s children’s service provider, Achieving for Children, for not effectively supporting…

Lord Reed has today (13 January) been sworn in as President of the Supreme Court, in succession to Baroness Hale.

A major housing association has launched the procurement of a legal services framework worth an estimated £1.8m.

DWR Cymru Welsh Water has appointed ten law firms to a legal services framework agreement estimated to be worth £14m.

LGSS Law, the social enterprise law firm owned by three councils, is on track to return to profit, its Executive Director has said, after its accounts for 2018/19 showed losses of more than £1.2m, up from £300,000 the previous year.

A challenge to a district council’s decision on grounds of consistency was recently rejected. Saira Kabir Sheikh QC looks at the lessons of the case.

The Local Government Association last month issued an updated version of Probity in Planning, its guidance for officers and councillors.

Families face homelessness because of errors in the way some councils deal with appeals against decisions on housing benefit claims, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has warned.

A provider of homes for vulnerable adults is to seek judicial review later this month of an assessment issued by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) after the watchdog said its governance and financial viability were both inadequate.

The number of children in care has risen by 28% in the past decade pushing the system to breaking point, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.

A campaign group has threatened the governing body of a school on the Isle of Wight with a judicial review challenge in a dispute over reorganisation.

Leeds City Council has today (8 January) secured an injunction against a proposed homeless encampment which it claimed would create a “tent city” in a car park.

Manchester City Council is to enshrine the principles of ‘Martyn’s Law’, which is intended to improve security at public venues, into its future regulations.

Law firm Ashfords has advised Maidstone Borough Council on the acquisition of a long leasehold interest in a leisure park for circa £18.7m.

National law firm Weightmans has bolstered its London office with the addition of two lateral hires in its healthcare and regulatory teams.

A Ministry of Justice consultation on proposed changes to the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS) fails to address the fundamental issues of sustainability, the Law Society has claimed.

A former Reablement Officer at Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Officer for accessing social care records without authorisation.

A defendant found guilty of five separate fly-tipping offences has been given a 30-month custodial sentence, following a prosecution brought by Portsmouth City Council.

The deadline has reportedly passed for property investment company Capital & Regional to appeal the High Court's decision to dismiss its application for a judicial review challenge over the grant of planning permission for a mixed-use gateway scheme that would help delivery of a new 23,000-seater…

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) has criticised the London Borough of Haringey after a young, single-parent family, including a disabled child, had to leave their home after the council miscalculated their housing benefits.

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has agreed to consider service resources and “the changes it needs to make to work in line with the law” after a Local Government and Social Ombudsman investigation into how a pregnant woman, who approached the council for help when she was made homeless, was…

Leeds City Council is to seek an injunction over a homeless support group’s plans to organise an encampment in a car park.

Lawyers in Local Government has launched the LLG Awards 2020, with a deadline for submitting nominations of 20th January.

A resident who claimed to be a ‘Freeman of the land’ has been fined £15,000 for refusing to remove an unlawfully built extension that covered the whole of his back garden.

The Troubled Families programme, which involves work with the whole family unit across local services, is to receive up to £165m in new funding, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced.

Councils have called for the introduction of tougher sentences for fly-tipping, after the latest figures showed it costs them £58m a year to clear up.

A new inquest into the death of 9 year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah will be held November or December this year, following the ordering of a new inquest by the high court last year.

More than 100 councils in England will share over £4m as part of a crackdown on criminal landlords and letting agents, the Housing Secretary has announced.

The London Borough of Hillingdon has lost a judicial review challenge over a decision by government ministers to allow High Speed Two’s appeal over the council’s refusal to grant approval for proposed works for the creation of an ecological mitigation area.

A landlord in Luton has been ordered to pay £27,000 at a sentencing hearing after previously pleading guilty to illegally managing a house in multiple occupation.

The West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority is to set up a specialist fire safety legal services framework agreement worth up to £480,000 over four years.

A homeowner who damaged a 90-year-old tree so much that it had to be felled has been fined more than £60,000 following a criminal prosecution by Chelmsford City Council.

A district council has successfully defended the grant of planning permission to itself for a multi-storey car park and other development on land in a conservation area, having previously lost an earlier judicial review challenge over a similar development.

An assessment carried out by a London borough did not constitute a discharge of its duties under the Care Act because it failed to include all the individual's needs, whether currently being met or not, a judge has ruled.

The Court of Appeal earlier this month granted the family of a Leicestershire teenager with special educational needs permission to appeal a High Court ruling dismissing their legal challenge over proposed changes to the county council’s school transport policy.

A local authority has won an appeal over a Family Court judge’s refusal of its application for interim care orders for two children.

East Suffolk Council has been threatened with a judicial review of its decision to grant planning permission for development of a nuclear power site.

The Welsh Government has highlighted draft legislation aimed at enhancing the ability of councillors to attend council meetings remotely more easily and job share cabinet posts.

The High Court has this month rejected a legal challenge to Southwark Council’s grant of planning permission for a major redevelopment of a large site that includes the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre.

Shropshire Council failed to take reasonable steps to acquaint itself with the history and legal status of land off a recreation ground when it granted planning permission for a development of 15 dwellings, a High Court judge has ruled.

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has issued a prior information notice on its plans to re-tender for a national legal services framework worth an estimated £65m.

A consortium of Scottish local authorities has appointed seven law firms to a legal services framework worth £12m.

Four members of the Government Legal Service have been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List 2020.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has successfully defended a High Court challenge over its decision to close a day centre for adults with learning difficulties.