Maswaku v Westminster City Council

Housing Homeless person. The Court of appeal, Civil Division, upheld a determination that the defendant local authority had not erred in its decision that, by offering suitable temporary accommodation to the claimant, it had discharged its housing duty under the and that it had not been necessary for the authority to have set out in detail a series of predictions of future events causally linked to the discharge of that duty.

*Humphreys v Revenue and Customs Commissioners

Social security Child benefit. The Supreme Court, in dismissing a minority carer father's appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal, held that indirect discrimination against men flowing from the requirement, pursuant to the Child Tax Credit Regulations 2002, , that the payment of child tax credit, in respect of a child in shared care by two parents, was to be made to the parent with main responsibility for the child, was justified.

Re H (children)(placement order: application of principles)

Child Care. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, reversed a decision making care orders and placement orders in relation to three children since the judge had erred by failing to give cogent reasons for departing from recommendations of experts that the mother should be reunited with the children under a rehabilitation program.

*Hemming (t/a Simply Pleasure Ltd) and others v Westminster City Council

Sex establishment Control. The Administrative Court held that the defendant local authority had to determine a reasonable licence fee for sex establishments in Westminster for 2011-12 and that such a fee could not take into account the cost of investigating and prosecuting persons, firms or companies who operated unlicensed sex establishments, pursuant to reg18(4) of the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, .

Blair v Chief Constable of Sussex Police

Health and safety at work Work equipment. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, reversed a decision that the defendant police force had not been liable for injuries sustained by the claimant police officer by failing to provide alternative protective motorcycle boots during an advanced training course. The defendant had not discharged the obligation of showing that it had not complied with the requirements of practicability in the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, .

Hounga v Allen and another

Race relations Discrimination. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the employee's appeal, holding that the employment tribunal's decision, of its own motion, to dismiss the employee's race discrimination claim relating to the currency of her employment because she had not first raised a grievance had been unfair and it had not considered reg11(3)(c) of the (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2002, SI2004-752. It also allowed the employer's cross-appeal, holding that the employee's previously successful claim for compensation for dismissal on grounds of race discrimination had been barred on the ground that the employment contract had been illegal and the employee's claim had arisen out of, or clearly been connected with, her own conduct in respect of that illegality. Consequently, the employee's discrimination claim was dismissed.

*Re D (a child) (care proceedings: ordinary residence)

Child Care. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the reference to 'a child' in s105(6) of the was intended to be a reference to the child who was the subject of proceedings under that Act and whose ordinary residence needed to be defined for some purpose under the Act.

Murphy v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and another; Doran v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and another

Town and country planning Appeal to Minister against refusal of permission for development. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the claimants' application, held that the Secretary of State had not acted unlawfully in refusing to refer back the claimants' planning appeals for further representations following the re-establishment of Regional Spatial Strategies.

R (on the application of Calver) v Adjudication Panel for Wales

Local government Councillor. The Administrative Court, in allowing the claimant council member's application for judicial review, held that the defendant adjudication panel's decision that comments made on the claimant's website had broken the council's code had been a disproportionate interference with the claimant's rights under art10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Barking and Dagenham Borough of London v Bakare

Landlord and tenant Possession. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, upheld the making of an immediate possession order where the trial judge had found that the anti-social behaviour of the tenant's son had been unlikely to cease, and accordingly it had not been appropriate to suspend possession.