Blog: 29/07/2022 - Helen McGrath, Head of Public Affairs

The House of Commons adjourned on the 21^st July for recess and will sit again on 5^th September. Normally this represents a quieter period for news during the summer months but this year of course, the leadership contest is providing the necessary fodder to keep journalists busy. That aside, there remains plenty of interest across a range of subject matters. One particularly interesting example lays with the Minister for Government Efficiency, Jacob Rees Mogg, who has commissioned a ‘value for taxpayers’ review into the role of the civil service to, “ascertain whether civil servants could adequately implement the decisions made by cabinet”.

It’s being billed as a ‘top to bottom’ review to include both the composition of the civil service board and whether they are adequately capable of being held to account by the Prime Minister. This follows Mogg’s ‘postcards on empty desks’ in April and no doubt driven by the continual use of working from home policies (which the Minister has frequently and publicly denounced). Reports of one third occupancy at the Foreign Office and notable public dissent following passport and driving licence delay is no doubt adding to the justification. On the face of it, we could be heading for sweeping Civil Service reform; local government of course, is no stranger to ‘transformation’.  

In other news, the government has opened a consultation on ‘Increasing the use of mediation in the civil justice system’, within which it proposes to automatically refer people involved in a civil dispute valued up to £10,000 for a free mediation session provided by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service as part of the court process. In fact, the consultation also examines the use of mediation in all County Court cases. Whilst the private sector is raising alarm bells over a loss of work, from a local government perspective, there might be some merit in avoiding expensive protracted mediation and cutting short ‘low level’ claims by agreement. Then again, so many of these ‘low-level’ claims usually attach themselves to existing proceedings; disrepair being a point in case. LLG will be examining the consultation and would like to hear from practitioners on their views. 

Turning to LLG news, whilst we too have a summer recess of sorts, it is well worth looking at our National Lead schedule from September onwards (starting with Monitoring Officers and Governance on the 8^th) and booking in ready for the Autumn. We have planning, employment, housing, procurement, children’s services, and junior meetings running until the end of October, with more subject matters in the pipeline for November and December. These are all, of course, free to our members. On the training side we have a vast array of courses on offer, and there is still time to take advantage of our ‘early bird’ offer for the LLG Governance Conference.

On the subject of training, LLG is looking for applications from local government lawyers interested in delivering training courses. If you would like to be considered, please send a short summary (500 words max) setting out your area/s of practice, any experience of training (which could be within your own department or client department), together with suggested topics to lucy@llg.org.uk by 17^th August.  

Best wishes  

Helen McGrath 

Head of Public Affairs 

Helen@llg.org.uk