News & Events

Listed below are the national news items and national events.

• 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

• Free Webinar - LLG Brexit Q&A with the Ministry - Recording now available

  Publish date: 20/06/2019

  The hotly awaited webinar with the Ministry which aired live on 19th June 2019 is now available to stream at your own convenience AND it is completely free!

• Brexit and Local Government: Response to the HCLG Select Committee Report

  Publish date: 04/06/2019

  The Government response to the select committee includes acceptance of the Committee’s recommendation to maintain existing mechanisms for communicating and engaging with local government during and immediately after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and commits to ensuring appropriate mechanisms are in place throughout the implementation period and negotiations on a future relationship.

• GDPR! 1 year on - 31.05.19

  Publish date: 03/06/2019

  GDPR! One Year On - read an update prepared by LLG's National Expert on Information Management​, Chucks Golding

• Commons Select Committee "Local Authorities Must Maintain Governance, Audit and Assurance"

  Publish date: 15/05/2019

  The Commons Select Committee in its report "Local Government Governance and Accountability" has stated that Government has not done enough to ensure that, at a time when local authority budgets are under extreme pressure, governance systems are improved.

• Restricting Exit Payments in the Public Sector Consultation

  Publish date: 14/05/2019

  The government legislated for a cap of £95,000 on exit payments in the public sector in the Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 as amended by the Enterprise Act 2016. The government is now consulting on the draft regulations to implement the cap. The exit payment cap includes redundancy lump sums and pension top-up payments. It also includes pension strain (when there is a cost to employers if an employee leaves a post early) which will see the cost of the strain included in an employee’s pay out thus reducing it. LLG are looking to respond to the consultation and want your views to inform it.