News & Events

Listed below are the national news items and national events.

• 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.

• Law Society Proposes to Cut Local Government Council Seats from 2 to 1 and Remove Direct Nomination

  Publish date: 08/08/2019

  The Law Society, as part of its last phase of internal governance reform (which has been rolling for some years now) is currently examining the composition and size of its Council members for a decision in October 2019. It proposes to reduce Council Seats from 100 to 75. Amongst other proposals, local government lawyer dedicated seats are being recommended for reduction to two to one. Further, unlike the current seats which are occupied by virtue of direct nomination from LLG (following a competitive recruitment exercise within the sector), the Law Society will recruit directly themselves to this one seat. WE NEED YOUR INPUT TO HELP RETAIN TWO SEATS

• The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman Publishes Annual Review of Local Government Complaints

  Publish date: 31/07/2019

  The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has today launched its annual review of local government complaints for 2018-19, together with an interactive map to make each council's information easily available. The report shows the Ombudsman registered 16,899 complaints and enquiries over the period, more than a third of which were about Children and Education Services, and Adult Social Care. Click to read more

• The Role of Inclusive Leadership in Public Sector Legal Teams

  Publish date: 11/07/2019

  Effective change leadership requires authenticity, an emotional connection, and an inclusive vision across the organisation. These were among the conclusions from a round-table forum on inclusion, gender and leadership hosted by Suki Binjal, Immediate Past LLG President in Hackney’s impressively refurbished Town Hall on Thursday 13 June. The round-table, part of Thomson Reuters’ programme Transforming Women’s Leadership in the Law, of which Suki is a board member, brought together legal directors from across the country and several members of the LLG executive, as well as junior lawyers from Hackney and law firm partners.

• July's Free CEO Webinar - CEO Brief: Climate Change and Local Authorities

  Publish date: 26/06/2019