In R ( RWU ) v ACADEMY GB (2025 ) EWCA Civ 147 it is held that the trigger or threshold test for identifying a case of potential CHILD CRIMINAL EXPLOITATION is whether the state authorities were aware or ought to have been aware of circumstances giving rise to a credible suspicion that the child concerned had been trafficked or exploited or that there was a real and immediate risk of their being trafficked.
ECHR ARTICLE 4
February 25th, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Human Rights and Public Sector Equality Duty
JURISDICTION
February 24th, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Judicial Control, Liability and LitigationIn IRWIN MITCHELL TRUST CORP LTD v KS ( 2025 ) EWCOP 7 (T2) the Court of protection considered as a preliminary issue whether it retained jurisdiction over the property and affairs of a young person aged 14 ( who lacked capacity and would continue to do so ) after her CHANGE OF HABITUAL RESIDENCE from England and Wales to India. Before that jurisdiction derived from the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The Court retained jurisdiction. The retention of jurisdiction following the change was consistent with the aim of HAGUE CONVENTION 34 on Jurisdiction etc. There was no gap in protection.
COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY
February 24th, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Planning and EnvironmentalCAPTAIN LEE JONES v SHROPSHIRE COUNCIL (2025) EWHC 365 (Admin) is an application for Judicial Review of the Council’s Decision to issue and serve on the Claimant a CIL Stop Notice under Regulation 90 of the Community Infrastructure Regulations 2010. Read more »
RATES RETENTION
February 24th, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Council Tax and RatesThe Non-Domestic Rates ( Designated Areas ) Regulations 2025, S.I. 2025/180, form part of the rates retention system. They allow local authorities to retain 100% rather than 50% of growth in business rates income in specified areas. They designate 6 areas, primarily in the East Midlands and the North East.
GUIDANCE
February 24th, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Decision making and ContractsA Welsh Government publication provides Guidance on Frameworks under the PROCUREMENT ACT 2023, both framework agreements and the new “ open frameworks “, and on call-off contracts.
PLANNING APPLICATION
February 21st, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Planning and EnvironmentalSection 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 bears the heading “power to decline to determine retrospective application”. Its purpose, or one of its purposes, is to prevent repeat planning applications being used to delay or frustrate ENFORCEMENT ACTION by taking many “bites of the cherry”. In R (MORAN) v MEDWAY COUNCIL (2025) EWHC 350 (Admin) the Council invoked Section 70C in the decision challenged declining to determine a planning application submitted by the Claimant. A LPA can do that under Section 70C(1) Read more »
MERGER
February 21st, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Judicial Control, Liability and LitigationThe appeal in NASIR v ZAVARCO plc (2025) UKSC 5 concerned the scope of the longstanding English law doctrine of merger. In short, the question is whether the doctrine, by which a cause of action merges with a judgment in the action, applies to a declaratory judgment. The Supreme Court held that it does not.
The doctrine of merger was developed as a means to promote finality in litigation and to prevent duplicative and vexatious litigation. Unlike the standard defence of res judicata in the form of cause of action estoppel, which prevents the contradiction of an earlier judgment as to the existence or non-existence of a cause of action, merger was designed to make a litigant seek his or her remedies in one action by extinguishing a cause of action when judgment has been given on it. Read more »
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
February 18th, 2025 by James Goudie KC in Decision making and ContractsThe Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and other Amendments) Regulations 2025, S.I. 2025/163, make substantive amendments to the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) and the Procurement Regulations 2024 (PR 2024), as well as consequential amendments arising from the coming into force of the PA 2023. They: update certain specified threshold amounts; reflect additions and amendments to the UK’s international obligations in respect of procurement; make consequential amendments to primary legislation rendered necessary by the coming into force of the PA 2023; make amendments to the PR 2024 that address a small number of matters for which provision was not made in those Regulations; contain consequential amendments to secondary legislation and assimilated law which are rendered necessary by the coming into force of the PA 2023; make repeals and revocations rendered necessary by the coming into force of the PA 2023; and contain transitional provisions.
A collection of updated Cabinet Office Procurement Policy Notes include: PPN 001: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSE) procurement spend targets; PPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of contracts; PPN 003: the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012; PPN 004: Open Book Contract Management; PPN 005: Reserving below threshold procurements; PPN 006: Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts; PPN 007: Contracts with Russia and Belarus; PPN 008: Armed Forces Covenant; PPN 009: Tackling modern slavery in government supply chains; PPN 010: Procuring steel in government contracts; PPN 011: The Commercial Playbooks; PPN 012: Security Classifications Policy; PPN 013: Using standard contracts; PPN 015: How to take account of a supplier’s approach to payment in the procurement of major contract; PPN 016: Carbon Reduction Contract Schedule; PPN 017: Improving transparency of AI use in procurement; and PPN 018: How to take account of a supplier’s approach to payment in the procurement of major contracts.