News & Events

Listed below are the national news items and national events.

• LLG President Delivers Rallying Speech at Governance Conference

  Publish date: 20/10/2019

  Read the President's speech to the LLG Governance Conference 2019

• Government Releases No Deal Brexit Readiness Report

  Publish date: 08/10/2019

  The report includes information on borders, industry, medicines, imports and exports and security. A chapter dedicated to Public Services and Local Authorities Appears at chapter 7

• R (on the application of Miller) (Appellant) v The Prime Minister (Respondent) Cherry and others (Respondents) v Advocate General for Scotland (Appellant) (Scotland)

  Publish date: 01/10/2019

  Judgement of the Supreme Court

• LLG Publishes Guidance on EU Exit Statutory Instruments with Local Government Impact

  Publish date: 27/09/2019

  LLG is delighted to launch our guidance on EU Exit Statutory Instruments with Local Government Impacts. The guidance is designed to set out the broad range of governance documents which underpin local authorities, and which may be affected by changes brought in by the government. It sets out in detail the main changes brought about by numerous statutory instruments which broadly correct “retained EU law” to ensure that the legislation will work properly once the UK has left the EU.

• Supreme Court Judgement on the Prorogation of Parliament

  Publish date: 24/09/2019

  The Supreme Court unanimously ruled the prorogation unlawful and void holding it was done to frustrate or prevent the ability of parliament to carry out its functions without reasonable justification. The court held prorogation was not a proceeding in parliament under the Bill of Rights and stated the court certainly could declare therefore that the advice was unlawful. The judgement said the court was 'bound to conclude' there was no reasonable justification.

• Open Letter from the Committee on Standards in Public Life to all Public Office Holders

  Publish date: 23/09/2019

  The Committee has published an open letter to all public office holders on the importance of maintaining high standards and implementing the Nolan Principles.

• CfPS Annual Survey of Overview and Scrutiny in Local Government

  Publish date: 17/09/2019

  2020 will mark the 20th anniversary of the legislative changes that led to the establishment of the overview and scrutiny function in English and Welsh councils. In the run-up to this momentous event, the CfPS want to have – and we want you to have – the fullest possible picture of scrutiny across the country. Notable practice, practical experiences, resourcing, impact and the commitment of the executive – the better we can collectively understand these issues, the more we can do to improve scrutiny across the country. The main way that the CfPS help to do this is through thier annual surveys of overview and scrutiny in local government. This year’s survey is now open.

• Ministers Publish Yellowhammer

  Publish date: 12/09/2019

  Ministers have published details of their Yellowhammer contingency plan, after MPs voted to force its release. It outlines a series of "reasonable worst case assumptions" for the impact of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

• Olwen Brown of Anthony Collins, Solicitors, discusses insourcing for local authorities

  Publish date: 23/08/2019

  For decades now, starting with the compulsory competitive tendering introduced by the Thatcher Government in the 1980s, fewer and fewer services provided by local authorities have been delivered directly by them. Alternative delivery, largely through the private profit-driven sector, has increased hugely. Some councils went so far as to consider a model where they only retained a small corporate core to provide a level of democratic cover and sufficient skeleton resource to manage the contracts let to deliver services; although very few councils, if any, actually achieved this. However, over the last couple of years, there are signs that this tide is changing.

• LLG Feature in BBC Article on Local Authority Legal Spend

  Publish date: 16/08/2019

  LLG appeared on the BBC Look East this morning discussing the findings of a BBC FOI investigation into the doubling of many local authority legal department budgets. We also featured on the BBC website in an article examining this trend. The Local Government Lawyer will be releasing its findings of the local government of the future survey next month which highlights numerous trends including the challenge of effective recruitment within the sector. LLG are launching its National Graduate Recruitment Campaign soon in order to address this issue- more on that will follow. Click to read the BBC article.