A Welsh Senedd member found to have breached the Code of Conduct after confidential information was shared with the press has called for reform of the Code, arguing it unfairly prevents members from defending themselves against “unfounded allegations”. Speaking in the Welsh Senedd on Wednesday (30 April), Siân Gwenllian MS said the current Code restrains…
The demands on temporary housing have reached crisis point, with homeless families being forced into substandard and sometimes dangerous accommodation, whilst the costs involved are pushing many local authorities into financial distress. To investigate the legal and other barriers to tackling this issue, Local Government Lawyer and Devonshires are conducting a short survey into some of the…
The chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said the regulator will be “working at pace” to incorporate into its revised Code of Practice the implications of this week’s Supreme Court landmark ruling on gender recognition certificates and the definition of ‘sex’, ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the Equality Act 2010. A revised Code…
The Supreme Court has ruled that a person with a full gender recognition certificate which recognises their gender as female, is not a “woman” for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010), and that the meaning of the word woman in the 2010 Act is “biological”. In For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish…
Community and town councils in Wales are increasingly failing to submit annual returns in accordance with proper practices, keeping inadequate accounting records, and failing to publish information they are legally required to, Audit Wales has warned. The findings were detailed in the watchdog’s latest report, Financial Management and Governance – Lessons from Audit for Community and…
The UK and Welsh Governments have unveiled proposals to amend environmental permitting regulations in a bid to simplify and speed up the process for lead regulators the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales “to create, amend and remove types of exempt facilities and activities which are not required to hold an environmental permit”. The consultation,…
The Welsh Government has asked that certain provisions within the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, including those in relation to children in secure accommodation and children not in school, be applied to Wales in the same way as England. In a written cabinet statement published last week (10 March), Lynne Neagle, Cabinet Secretary for Education, and Dawn…
The Upper Tribunal has in part allowed a council’s appeal against a decision by the Education Tribunal for Wales in relation to the naming of a school in a child’s Individual Development Plan, in the first case to have been brought under the new 2018 Act regime for Additional Learning Provision in Wales. In Cardiff Council…
A local objector to Gwynedd Council’s policy on planning for holiday homes has won the right to take the authority to judicial review after a judge said he was “just persuaded” this was the right course. The case arose in the High Court before Mr Justice Pepperall when Enlli Williams challenged Gwynedd’s July 2024 decision…
Alex Madden, Head of Planning and Environmental and a member of the Rail team at Hugh James, looks at the key considerations affecting local authorities involved in rail modernisation projects, such as the Western Gateway Rail Deal. On 28th of January, stakeholders from the private and public sectors gathered at law firm Hugh James’ office…
