Legislation / Legal
OFT: The OFT recently welcomed a ruling from the High Court that minimum contract length terms and a number of other key terms in thousands of gym membership contracts, recommended & enforced by Ashbourne Management Services Limited ('Ashbourne), are unfair & hence unenforceable. The court also ruled that a number of Ashbourne's techniques for collecting arrears were unlawful.
DG: The new vehicle insurance law means that the registered keeper of a vehicle must keep it insured unless they've made a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). If you're not insured and haven't made a SORN, you could face a penalty. Find out what the change in the law means for you.
CLG: Planning authorities & inspectors can take the Coalition Government's intention to abolish Regional Strategies into consideration in deciding planning applications & appeals, the Court of Appeal confirmed recently.
For the second time, the courts have ruled in the Government's favour, following an appeal by CALA Homes arguing that the Government's intention to abolish the strategies could not lawfully be taken into account in any way in relation to planning applications & appeals, at least until such time as the Localism Bill becomes law.
The judgment means that the proposed abolition of the strategies can be regarded as a 'material consideration' by local planning authorities & inspectors when deciding planning applications & appeals. The Court has given helpful guidance to such decision makers on the approach they should take in judging the potential significance of that factor.
ScotGov: The plan to create a new unit to assist Procurators Fiscal and the police in the direction of further enquiries in unsolved murders & other serious crimes in Scotland was announced last week. The specialist unit will assist & support Procurators Fiscal and the police in reviewing unsolved crimes from across Scotland to identify those which merit fresh investigation to break the stalemate in a case.
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