Met agrees final settlement in Carol Howard discrimination case – BBC News
‘The Metropolitan Police has agreed a final settlement with an officer it discriminated against.’
BBC News, 14th February 2015
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: tribunals
Important Presidential decision on costs in immigration cases – Free Movement
‘The Presidents of the Immigration and Asylum Chambers sat together in the First-tier Tribunal case of Cancino (costs – First-tier Tribunal – new powers) [2015] UKFTT 00059 (IAC) in order to give guidance on when legal costs might become payable in immigration cases. The power to make awards of legal costs to a party in immigration appeals was only introduced in October 2014 and there has been no real guidance until now.’
Free Movement, 13th February 2015
Source: www.freemovement.org.uk
Council wins appeal in lead case on bedroom tax and shared residence of child – Local Government Lawyer
‘The Upper Tribunal has upheld a local authority’s appeal in the lead case on the application of the “bedroom tax” to the shared residence of a child.’
Local Government Lawyer, 10th February 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
The Algebra of FOIA – Panopticon
‘It is no matter of Euclidian geometry to say that where x + y = z, and z = 13, being told what y equals one need not be Pythagoras to establish the value of x. But what happens when z is in the public domain, x is absolutely exempt information under FOIA (because it is caught by section 23(1)) and the public interest otherwise favours the disclosure of y, which is not the subject of an exemption? Inevitably, the effect of disclosure is that the absolutely exempt information is also revealed. The Interim Decision of the Upper Tribunal in Home Office v ICO & Cobain [2014] UKUT 306 (AAC) was that the Tribunal had to consider whether it was appropriate to utilise the section 50(4) FOIA power so as not to direct disclosure. The issue may be formulaic, but the answer is not.’
Panopticon, 6th February 2015
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
Advocate general: Employment Appeal Tribunal was wrong in ‘Woolworths’ collective redundancy case – OUT-LAW.com
‘UK rules limiting collective consultation requirements to cases where an employer was proposing 20 or more redundancies “at one establishment” are compatible with EU law, according to an adviser to the EU’s highest court.’
OUT-LAW.com, 5th February 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
Tribunal tells council to disclose redactions from housing viability assessment – Local Government Lawyer
‘The First-tier Tribunal has ordered a London council to disclose redacted information in a viability assessment that led to the authority allowing a developer to vary the amount of affordable housing on a major site.’
Local Government Lawyer, 6th February 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Theresa May wins rapist deportation appeal – BBC News
‘A ruling that prevented the deportation of a Somali man who raped a pregnant woman has been successfully challenged by the home secretary.’
BBC News, 5th February 2015
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Phonepayplus Ltd v Ashraf and another – WLR Daily
Phonepayplus Ltd v Ashraf and another [2014] EWHC 4303 (Ch); [2015] WLR (D) 16
‘OFCOM had the power to delegate to the relevant “enforcement authority” under section 120 of the Communications Act 2003 all powers of enforcement of the provisions of the Code of Practice under the Act. It was implicit in the code that the provisions in it for imposing sanctions upon premium rate service providers for breach of the code were subject to the limitations set out in section 123(2) of the Act.’
WLR Daily, 19th December 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
CAT power to issue cost-capped injunctions will improve competition law enforcement, says expert – OUT-LAW.com
‘FOCUS: Proposed changes to the workings of the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) will make it more likely that competition law is enforced and will give some smaller companies a boost in pursuing competition claims.’
OUT-LAW.com, 23rd January 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
David Hart QC: TTIP – more ‘foreign’ judges critising ‘our’ laws? – UK Human Rights Blog
‘TTIP stands for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a proposed trade agreement between the US, the EU, and various members of the EU including the UK. A sober account of its history and scope was produced for the HoC debate (here), and a rather less polite view is here from George Monbiot. ‘
UK Human Rights Blog, 23rd January 2015
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
HMRC Dishonesty Allegation “seriously flawed” – RPC Tax Take
‘The First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) (“FTT”) has ruled, in Citibank NA v Revenue and Customs Commissioners, that HMRC’s pleadings were “seriously flawed”. When alleging fraud against a taxpayer, HMRC must clearly plead that the taxpayer had a dishonest state of mind.’
RPC Tax Take, 14th January 2015
Source: www.rpc.co.uk
Hot, hot, hot – NearlyLegal
‘Here is an interesting First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax appeal decision from Bexleyheath. [Decision notice]. It is a decision made after the Fife Upper Tribunal decision, but upholds the tenant’s appeal on the basis, in part, that the room is inadequately sized to be a bedroom, as well as being just too damn hot.’
NearlyLegal, 11th January 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Challenging a Refusal of Permission to Appeal by the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) in a Welfare Benefits Case – A Practice Note – Garden Court Chambers Blog
‘Desmond Rutledge provides a practice note on challenging a refusal of permission to appeal by the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) in a welfare benefits case.’
Garden Court Chambers Blog, 6th January 2015
Source: www.gclaw.wordpress.com
Is the Cart-threshold being set too high? – Garden Court Chambers Blog
‘Desmond Rutledge and Zubier Yazdani consider the hurdles facing welfare benefit claimants seeking to use the Cart test.’
Garden Court Chambers, Blog, 6th January 2015
Source: www.gclaw.wordpress.com
Service Charge Disputes in the First Tier Tribunal – Hardwicke Chambers
‘Over many years of representing landlords (usually by their appointed property management company) in leasehold service charge disputes before the Tribunals, various themes have developed. One of them is my frustration, in the majority of cases, at the quality of evidence with which I must present my client’s case. It actually isn’t that difficult to get your best evidence before the Tribunals and secure the best possible recovery. Especially with the benefit of hindsight!’
Hardwicke Chambers, 17th December 2014
Source: www.hardwickec.co.uk
CC & C Ltd v Revenue and Customs Comrs – WLR Daily
CC & C Ltd v Revenue and Customs Comrs [2014] EWCA Civ 1653; [2014] WLR (D) 557
‘In exceptional cases, the court could entertain a claim for judicial review of a decision, under section 100G(5) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, to revoke the registration of a registered excise dealer and shipper and could make an order for interim re-registration pending determination of that claim where it was arguable that the decision was not simply unreasonable but was unlawful on some other ground, such as being an abuse of power or improper or taken in bad faith.’
WLR Daily, 19th December 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Settling a taxing point about taxation of settlement agreements – Cloisters
‘If you are an advisor who only occasionally dabbles with tax issues in settlements for fear of having to delve into murky tax law, take note of a recent decision providing a lucid summary of the relevant principles. The case is also a cautionary tale for claimants challenging tax assessments as the claimant’s unsuccessful challenge before the First-Tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) resulted in a tax bill larger than the one sent to him by HMRC. If Oti-Obhihara [2011] IRLR 386 and Orthet v Vince Cain [2005] ICR 374 ring a distant bell from advising on settlements past, they should now be retuned to the sound of alarm bells as the FTT in Moorthy v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 834 (TC) has doubted their correctness.’
Cloisters, 12th December 2014
Source: www.cloisters.com
Unwanted anonymity and gagging orders – Free Movement
‘I’ve now come across two cases in which judges of the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber have imposed unwanted anonymity orders on parties without any application or notice. One case is reported here and the other can’t be reported because of, well, the anonymity order. In both cases there was media interest beforehand and the orders acts as a gagging orders, preventing the parties from discussing their case with the media, even though the cases and the identities of the appellants had already been reported. In one of the cases the appellant had a child and that provided the reason or pretext for imposing anonymity. In the other unreported case children are named in the determination but are entirely tangental to the case and could easily have not been named.’
Free Movement, 17th December 2014
Source: www.freemovement.org.uk
Learning difficulties assessments – High Ct judgment – Education Law Blog
‘The introduction of EHC plans for some 16-25 year olds was one of the most important changes to SEN in the Children and Families Act 2014. Under the previous regime, a special educational needs statement could not provide for a young person to attend further education or higher education. Even if the child remained in a school setting post-16, the statement would lapse (if the local authority had not already ceased to maintain it) when the young person turned 19, although the local authority could choose to maintain it until the end of that academic year. Young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities who were moving into further education, training or higher education received instead a learning difficulties assessment. This assessment would result in a written report of their educational and training needs and the provision required to meet them (“the LDA”). Any challenge to an LDA was by way of judicial review (as, in contrast to the position for challenges to the contents of SEN statements, there was no statutory right of appeal to the tribunal). That is all changing, with the introduction of EHC plans, which can continue until the young person reaches the age of 25, which can include further education provision (but still not higher education) and which can be appealed to the tribunal. Whilst EHC plans were introduced on 1 September 2014, there is a fairly lengthy transition period and so LDAs will be with us for a little longer yet.’
Education Law Blog, 16th December 2014
Source: www.education11kbw.com
