We are looking for qualified legal professionals to join a review panel considering appeals against certain LAA decisions including those relating to claims for costs.

Successful applicants for the Legal Aid Review Panel are drawn from solicitors, barristers and Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (FCILEx).

What does the work involve?

Members serve as Independent Funding Adjudicators (IFAs) and Independent Costs Assessors (ICAs). You will use your knowledge and expertise to decide appeals against refusal of funding and assessment of costs.

We expect to allocate you up to 60 hours of work a year and the appeals sent to you will relate to the areas of law in which you specialise.

How will I be paid?

You will be paid at the rate of £52 per hour and reasonable expenses will be reimbursed. Panel members are paid through the Judicial Payroll.

If selected to serve, you will be deemed an “office holder” as defined in the relevant revenue law.

This means the LAA will be required to pay basic rate income tax and National Insurance contributions on all payments to panel members.

Panel members are not employees of the LAA. So, you will not be offered a contract of employment.

How long does the appointment last?

Members will serve for 5 years from 1 July 2019.

Where can I find out more?

There is more information together with an application form on our Review Panel application page on GOV.UK

This explains the background to the formation of the panel and the areas of work which it deals with. Also, the qualifications and skills required to serve on the panel.

Further information

Apply to Legal Aid Review Panel

New data published today by Natural England shows the majority of children and young people are regularly spending time outdoors.

Natural England’s Monitoring of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) report found that 70% of all children in England under the age of 16, and 64% of young people aged 16-24 are said to be spending time outside at least once a week. However, there are still clear inequalities with children living in lower income areas being less likely to visit the natural environment compared with those living in areas of higher income.

The findings highlight the importance of local greenspaces, including urban parks, recreation grounds and playgrounds for children’s play and experience of the natural world. Across all age groups and backgrounds, local greenspaces provide an important opportunity for children to experience the natural environment on a regular basis, with these spaces becoming even more vital for children who are least likely to visit the natural environment frequently.

This is one of the reasons why Natural England is leading a new cross-government project to review and update standards for green infrastructure, in addition to working with the Parks Action Group, to overcome barriers to access, and to ensure England’s public parks and green spaces meet the needs of communities now and in the future.

The government, through its 25 Year Environment Plan, published in January 2018, has set an ambitious target to improve the environment within a generation, kicking off this target with the launch of the Year of Green Action, focusing on connecting people with the environment to improve health and wellbeing. Within this, Government has set out a range of commitments to enhance opportunities for children, young people and adults from all backgrounds to engage with the natural world, and to help improve social injustice by opening up the mental and physical health and wellbeing.

As part of this Plan, Environment Secretary Michael Gove recently announced the Children and Nature Programme, awarding £10 million in funding to help support more children from deprived areas to have the opportunity for experiences in nature within a variety of local natural environments, including school grounds, community forests, woodlands and care farms.

Liz Newton, Director of Strategy Development, Natural England, said:

It is important that all children and young people have the opportunity to visit natural environments on a regular basis to support their health and wellbeing.

The MENE Children 2017/18 report confirms that children from lower income areas are visiting the natural environment less often than children from higher income areas. It also highlights the importance of local green spaces – including urban parks – as important spaces for children of all ages and backgrounds to discover and experience the benefits of the natural environment.

Through the work that Natural England is leading on the Children and Nature Programme, part of the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, we are committed to connecting more children with their local natural environments, particularly those children from lower income areas.

Graham Duxbury, Chief Executive of Groundwork UK and member of the Parks Action Group, said:

We know that parks and green spaces are hugely important to the development and wellbeing of children and young people – helping them connect with nature, increase physical activity and build social networks.

To better understand how young people currently use the natural environment is the first step in helping them get more involved in making decision about their local area, a key priority if we are going to deliver the aspirations of the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan.

Natural England will continue to monitor trends in children’s engagement with nature and look to work with our research partners to better understand these changes and their implications for children’s health and wellbeing, as well as the design of future green features within villages, towns and cities across England.

Children are also being encouraged to take part in nature activities through the Department for Education’s ‘My Activity Passport’. The passport is aimed at primary school children and outlines a range of activities and key milestones for children to take part in within each year of primary school, helping to enrich their experiences. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are also taking action by awarding £9.7 million for local authorities to better maintain, protect and increase their recreational spaces.

More recently, Natural England has worked to increase people’s access to the natural environment through a recent announcement for the opening of the latest stretch of the England Coast Path, increasing access to the magnificent Lincolnshire coastline with a new 16-mile route from Skegness to Mabelthrope. Once completed, the coastline will be the longest continuous coastal walking route in the world, and will become a National Trail – the nation’s finest and most popular long-distance paths.

A 24 year-old man has been ordered to pay nearly £5,000 after being found guilty of transporting controlled waste without a waste carriers licence.

On 27 February 2019, at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, Gyula Ruszo was fined £1,760, ordered to pay Environment Agency Costs of £2,995 as well as a victim surcharge of £170.

Mr Ruszo, of Kennington Road Nottingham, was caught transporting controlled waste without a licence during Operation Transporter, a multi-agency road stop on the A612 at Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire. Police directed him to pull in at the layby checkpoint where his vehicle was examined and Mr Ruszo was interviewed by an Environment Agency officer.

The vehicle was seized by police as it was found to be un-roadworthy, had no MOT and the driver Mr Ruszo had no insurance. The van was carrying various items of scrap metal including a copper hot water tank, lengths of copper piping, a washing machine, lead flashing and a metal lawn mower.

Anyone transporting waste as part of their normal business, whether it is their waste or someone else’s, has to have a Waste Carriers Licence.

This was the second hearing of the case after Mr Ruszo failed to turn up to the first hearing in January 2019. The case was rearranged for 27 February 2019, but Mr Ruszo again failed to attend and the case was heard in his absence.

Speaking after the case, Waste Regulatory Specialist Iain Regan, who is lead for Operation Transporter in the Environment Agency said:

This is an excellent result for the Environment Agency, which we are pleased to share with our professional partners; the Police and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency who we work closely with on Op Transporter.

This case makes it clear to anyone who may be in any doubt about the need to register for a licence to carry waste that if you transport waste in Nottinghamshire you may be stopped and your waste carrier registration checked. The penalties for failing to have a waste carriers licence can be significant and it is not worth the risk. Registration can be applied for easily on-line, or by phone.

We want householders and businesses to only use licensed waste carriers which offers greater assurance that any waste will be properly and legally managed. We hope that cases such as this one show legitimate waste carriers that we are taking action against the rogue traders and free riders.

Businesses or members of the public can report unregistered waste carriers or illegal waste sites to the Environment Agency, in confidence on 0800 80 70 60 (24/7 service), or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

All primary school pupils will benefit from world leading careers education developed by top industry professionals including the British Chambers of Commerce and BP.

To mark National Careers Week, which runs from Monday 4 March, to Friday 8 March, Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced that the Department is working with industry leaders to help make first class career-related learning a reality in all primary schools.

The Department for Education has published research that shows 96% of primary schools are offering tailored career activities to pupils, despite not being compelled to, and is committing ensure this reaches 100% by working with industry professionals.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

“Careers advice has thankfully moved on from my school days, where I once did a multiple choice test and was told I should work in catering.

“Good careers education is such a valuable asset that will help children to explore future possibilities and go on to lead happy rewarding lives. I’m pleased to know that so many primary school pupils have access to career-related learning to expand their ideas of who they could become in the future.

“But we want to make sure that support is available to everyone and that it’s of the highest standard so that is why we are working with industry experts to produce support primary schools.”

Schools Minister Nick Gibb met business leaders for a breakfast meeting ahead of National Careers Week. During the meeting, representatives from BP plc, UBS AG, the Confederation of British Industries (CBI), British Chambers of Commerce, the Education and Employers Taskforce, Business in the Community, Linklaters and Greensill UK, discussed the importance of modern foreign languages in careers education and agreed to form an ongoing network and to develop an action plan setting out how they will support schools to help pupils gain the language skills their future careers could require.

Today’s announcements comes after the Secretary of State visited Barham Primary School in Kent to answer pupils’ questions about his career as part of the Primary Futures programme, which gives primary schools access to a wide range of professionals, who deliver sessions that help raise children’s aspirations and counteract stereotypes about the people who do different jobs.

Many primary schools are already thinking about how best to introduce young children to ideas about the work they might do in future. The Department, through The Careers & Enterprise Company, is investing £2million to develop and extend career-related learning in primary schools. A series of organisations have submitted bids for grants from the fund and The Careers & Enterprise Company will announce successful applicants later this year.

This is one of a number of funds announced in the Government’s careers strategy to support the development and expansion of effective careers provision, focusing on geographical areas of need and targeting the most disadvantaged young people. The Careers & Enterprise Company will soon announce the successful applicants from a £2.5million pot of funding to help develop models for effective personal careers guidance in secondary school and the successful applicants from a separate £2.5million pot to develop models to help pupils benefit from effective encounters with employers.

From 1 April 2020, the recent update to Practice Guide 19 section 3.1.1 will take effect. This states:

A consent must state it is given to registration of the disposition, rather than simply consenting to the disposition itself.

When requesting consent from the party named in the restriction, customers will need to make it clear that they require consent to registration. And third parties giving consent must state they give consent to registration.

Restrictions in the register make it clear when the powers of the proprietor are limited, or a prior condition must be met before a disposition can be registered. Consenting to registration, rather than the disposition itself will ensure the requirements of the Land Registration Act 2002 are met.

We understand that consents to registration are obtained from third parties, and so we are giving customers 12-months’ notice to embed this practice. Incorrectly worded consents lodged from April next year, will receive an application enquiry (requisition). We have updated Practice Guide 19 to clarify our requirements.

For more information, see Practice Guide 19 – notices, restrictions and protection of third-party interests.