UT/2023/000021 - [2024] UKUT 00334 (TCC)

The Trust’s case is that there are number of pieces of legislation and guidance which constitute a special legal regime in this case, thereby satisfying the requirement in the first paragraph of Article 13. In this section we address that legislation and guidance. However, as we explain in more detail below, we have come to the view that the legal provisions and guidance relied on by the Trust do not fulfil the “special legal regime” requirement. In broad summary, this is either because those legal provisions do not, upon analysis, actually apply to the Trust or, if they do, they are not ones that have a real impact on the Trust’s activity in respect of its provision of services to the local authority. Moreover, even to the extent it can be said that any do impact on the way the activity is carried out, this is not unique to the Trust but would apply to public and private operators alike such that it cannot be said that the Trusts are subject to legal conditions which their private operator counterparts are not.