Public Law

Kenneth Parker QC was appointed Public Law Commissioner with effect from 3 January 2006 for up to five years. He succeeds Professor Martin Partington, who has become Special Consultant on the Public law team's housing law projects.

Mr Parker is a leading practitioner in European, competition and public law. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1992. He was made Recorder in 1999 and in 2000 became a Member of the Information Tribunal with special responsibility for appeals concerning national security. He is a Bencher of Gray's Inn.

Richard Percival (team manager)
Alex Marsh (public policy academic)
Lauren Jamieson (lawyer)
Elizabeth Saunders (lawyer)
Keith Vincent (lawyer)
Tim Spencer-Lane (lawyer)
Hafsah Masood (research assistant)
Katherine O'Byrne (research assistant)
Joseph Farmer (research assistant)

Administrative Redress: Public Bodies and the Citizen
When and how should an individual be able to obtain redress against a public body that has acted wrongfully?  Remedies are available in public and private law, both through the courts and through other redress mechanisms.  We published a consultation paper on 3 July 2008.  The closing date for responses is 7 November 2008.

Further information is available.

Housing: Renting Homes
In March 2001, the Government asked us to consider the law on housing tenure, as the first phase of a broader reform of housing law. As the project progressed, the issues relating to co-occupation of homes, transfer and statutory succession were added to the project. We issued two consultation papers, in April and September 2002, which have provided the basis for a particularly wide ranging consultation process. We reported our conclusions in 'Renting Homes' in November 2003.

On 5 May 2006, our final report with illustrative model contracts and a draft Bill, was published. We hope the Government will react favourably to this major reform proposal, which will modernise, simplify and make more comprehensible the agreements under which six million plus households live in rented accommodation.

Housing: Proportionate Dispute Resolution
The project takes a broad problem based approach, starting with thinking about what practical problems people have with housing, rather than pre-existing legal categories. We held an initial seminar in September 2004 to help us try to expose the real issues at the heart of housing dispute resolution. A report of the seminar is available.

In April 2006 the team published an issues paper.  Consultation on the issues paper closed on 11 July 2006.  We have published an analysis of the responses received.

In June 2007 we published a consultation paper on the role of tribunals in proportionate disputes resolution.  Consultation on the project closed on 28 September 2007.

Further information is available.

Encouraging Responsible Letting
Arising from the Renting Homes report of November 2003, this project looks at ways to promote good practice in the private rented sector.

A consultation paper was published on 13/07/07.  We expect to publish a report in June 2008.

Further information is available.

Level Crossings
As part of the Law Commission's tenth programme of law reform, we are reviewing the law relating to level crossings.  Level crossings present the largest single risk of catastrophic train accident on Britain's railways, but the current legal framework is complex and outdated.  We aim to recommend reform to modernise and simplify the legal framework for level crossings.  The project will be undertaken jointly with the Scottish Law Commission.

Further information is available.

Adult Social Care
The purpose of this ambitious project is to review the law under which residential care, community services, adult protection and support for carers is provided.  The law is currently fragmented and difficult to understand and apply, for both service users and service providers.  The ultimate aim would be to provide a coherent legal structure, preferably in the form of a single statute.  The first stage of this project began in June 2008 and involves producing a scoping paper to delineate the scope of the project and provide a detailed agenda for reform.  We expect to publish the paper later in the year.

Further information is available.

For further information, contact the Public Law team.