.gif)
Legislation / Legal
HSE: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning school governing bodies to ensure that correct risk assessments are undertaken and precautionary advice is issued when pupils are using hazardous substances. The advice comes after a 6th form student was left with only two fingers after using plaster of Paris to make a cast of her own hands in an A-Level Art & Design class.
A risk assessment, required by law, for the handling of hazardous substances had not been carried out, the class pupils had not been told by their teacher of the potential dangers of plaster of Paris and the pupils had not been instructed to wear gloves or other protective equipment when handling the substance. In addition, the school’s Governing body did not report the incident. The HSE was told by the plastic surgeon who treated the burns.
It is important to note that the school’s Governing body was deemed responsible and not the local authority because the school has foundation status and is therefore not governed by the local authority.
CLG: Councils are to be given new legislative powers to establish mutual insurance companies in light of the recent London Authorities Mutual Limited (LAML) court judgement. Urgent new amendments have been laid on the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill that will give 'best value' authorities legislative power to join together to set up & participate in mutual insurance companies.
These steps follow the recent court ruling that Brent council did not have the necessary powers to set up LAML. Member councils participating in LAML claimed to have saved 15% on insurance premiums as a result.
Press release ~
DCSF: Children’s Secretary Ed Balls recently wrote to Ofsted to propose an end to the regulation of reciprocal childcare arrangements between friends. The Children’s Secretary asked Ofsted to treat, with immediate effect, all childcare arrangements made between friends with no financial reward & of mutual aid as beyond regulated childcare and therefore without requirement of regulation & registration.
He also announced he is setting in train the process required to clarify the relevant legislation to exempt from registration reciprocal childcare arrangements between friends.
MoJ: The Ministry of Justice has announced a review (by Sir Ian Magee) into the delivery of legal aid, which is meant to ensure that the £2.bn currently spent on legal aid every year is delivering best value for money, providing a healthy & sustainable future for social welfare law and effectively integrating the criminal defence service with the criminal justice system. Individuals & organisations interested in providing input into the Magee Review can do so via email.
Legal Aid costs per head of population in England & Wales run at £38 per head compared with £30 in Scotland, £36 in Northern Ireland and the following in comparable common law countries: £8 in the Republic of Ireland, £5 in Canada, £8 in New Zealand and £9 in Australia. Expenditure on the Criminal Defence Service has risen from £873m to £1.2bn and the Community Legal Service from £719m to £914m over the past 9 years.
Press release ~ Criminal Defence Service ~ Community Legal Service ~ European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice: European Judicial Systems ~ MoJ - Legal aid
SGC: The Sentencing Guideline Council’s definitive guideline on fraud offences provides comprehensive advice on a wide range of statutory offences, including new offences introduced by the Fraud Act 2006 which provides for maximum sentences of up to 10 years imprisonment.
The new guideline does not include the common law offence of cheating the public revenue, which is generally reserved for the most serious offences and where a sentence in excess of the statutory maximum for other offences would be proper, or those cases where offenders are convicted of conspiracy to defraud.
Offences covered by the guideline are grouped by types of fraud rather than by the specific offence of which a person is convicted to encourage a consistent approach. Among the types covered are: confidence fraud; banking & insurance fraud; and benefit fraud.
