News

On 18 September 2012, we hosted and spoke at the Local Government Chronicle social enterprise masterclass: ‘How to spin out your service from the council: a development masterclass in making social enterprise work in local authorities.&rsquo...

A series of recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decisions are seen as narrowing the circumstances in which TUPE may apply.  In the most recent of these decisions, Liddell’s Coaches v Cook and others,  the EAT has considered for the f...

On 1 April 2013, PCTs will be abolished and assets and liabilities will be transferred to various bodies, including CCGs, the NHS Commissioning Board and NHS Property Services Ltd. As part of the preparation towards this momentous change, the Depa...

From 1 October 2012, the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 creates a new offence of clamping or immobilising a vehicle on private land without lawful authority, punishable by an unlimited fine. The development is designed to tackle the increasing tr...

The Ministry of Justice have just published their seventh summary of Rule 43 reports made by Coroners and the figures show a record number of reports have been issued. During the period between October 2011 and March 2012, Coroners issued 233 repo...

Further to our update in June 2012, a second commencement order has recently been passed which brings certain provisions from the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (HSCA) into force on 1 October 2012. In lin...

Following Parliamentary approval of the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012, the Health and Safety Executive ('HSE') will, from 1 October 2012, seek to recover, via a process known as 'Fee for Intervention' ('FFI'), some of the cost of regul...

Torbay Care Trust, Devon, has been fined £175,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) after publishing on its website a spreadsheet containing the personal data (including n...

Last Thursday the Court of Appeal took the unusual step of using an approval hearing to indicate that general damages in all tort claims will rise by 10% in accordance with the recommendations of Sir Rupert Jackson's report on costs in civil claim...

There are many strands to the complicated issue of the accrual and carry over of annual leave during sick leave but one question which has come before the courts recently is whether such workers must request annual leave in order to permit carry o...

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, has issued further guidance on the future of pension provision under “Fair Deal”. His statement suggests that public sector employees who are transferred to the private sector ...

Taking action where there appears to be an irretrievable breakdown in working relationships

Kerslake v The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, in which Capsticks acted for the trust, gives employers reassurance...

PCTs will now be able to identify GDS and PDS contractors who have not completed their contracted levels of Units of Dental Activity (UDA). In cases where the contractor has underperformed outside the 4% tolerance provided for in dental contracts,...

Statutory changes have recently been introduced to the tenancy deposit scheme system in order to overcome certain shortcomings that had come to light since the original scheme was introduced in 2007. 

Penalties

March 2013 will see a host of functions, powers, and responsibilities transfer from PCTs to CCGs.

Among these remains the long established, but often lesser known, PCT ability to make capital grants for the purpose of improving community s...

Whether or not your area is expected to receive Olympics related tourism, the additional overseas visitors expected to visit the country for the Olympics provides a timely opportunity to ensure that your trust has the necessary procedures in place...

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 (the Act) will introduce a new governance model for NHS foundation trusts. This means that each NHS foundation trust will need to amend its constitution to ensure that it complies with law and reflects the new g...

In October 2011 the Department of Health published its strategy to accelerate the disposal of surplus NHS land, which formed part of the Government’s wider programme to release more public sector land for housing development.

F...

Following the issue of David Flory's letter to SHA and PCT cluster chief executives on 31 May 2012, the PCTs and SHAs have been focusing on the Department of Health's ('DH') requirements and timetable for the property and estates transfers to eith...

Pursuant to a request by the Secretary of State, the NHS foundation trust regulator, Monitor, has announced a review into ensuring a "fair playing field" for providers of NHS services.
 
On 14 June 2012, Monitor's interim chief exe...

Thursday (21 June 2012) will see NHS doctors take action short of a strike on a national scale over the Government's proposed changes to current pensions.

The Capsticks Employment team have drawn up FAQs which take ...

Capsticks has won the ‘Legal advisors of the year – public’ award at the HealthInvestor Awards 2012. The awards focus on NHS and private businesses successfully working together and are the largest annual event of their kind.

In David Flory’s letter to SHA and PCT cluster chief executives of 31 May 2012 the Department of Health (‘DH’) has confirmed the requirements and timetable for the property and estates transfers by PCTs and SHAs to either NHS pro...

A recent judicial review claim brought by two Mid Essex cancer sufferers against four Essex primary care trusts (The Queen (on the application of McIlveen) v Mid Essex PCT and Others) has highlighted the importance of the public sector eq...

The ICO has recently fined two NHS bodies for data security breaches. These fines highlight the ICO’s increased focus on data security in the health sector. This e-bulletin considers the first fine to be issued against a NHS body, as well as...

The Office of Fair Trading has published its report into the UK dentistry market of £5.73bn per year of which approximately 58% is NHS and 42% private dentistry.

The problem

Some of the OFT’s key concer...

The Government, through the Health and Social Care Act proposes to abolish SHAs and PCTs and transfer functions to the NHS Commissioning Board, CCGs, CSOs, NHS Property Services Ltd, Health Education England, Public Health England and local govern...

The issue of whether a bank worker is self employed or an employee is a thorny one. Whilst the title given in the relevant documents will be looked at by tribunals in determining the nature of the relationship, three core elements which denote an ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal by consultant cardiologist Dr Raj Mattu that his dismissal by the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust was ineffective and in breach of his right to a fair trial under Article 6 of t...

A senior circuit judge has been appointed as the Chief Coroner for England and Wales, to drive up the standards of inquests around the country and improve consistency of practice.  This is good news for those healthcare organisations with dif...

Inappropriate claiming / fraud

Figures published by NHS Protect last week estimate that in 2009/10 over £78 million was paid to NHS dental contractors for treatment which was inappropriately claimed. This included cl...

The Health and Social Care Act 2012

After more than 1,000 amendments, the Health and Social Care Bill has now received Royal assent.

The themes of organisational change; choice and competition; improving quality an...