structural:reformatting
United Kingdom

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that Essex County Council could not delegate its duty of care to one of its pupils to an independent third party. In the case of Woodland v Essex County Council, a child had suffered severe brain damage as a result of an accident which occurred during a swimming lesson provided by a third party. The court ruled that the local authority could be directly liable under a non-delegable duty of care, where it had failed to ensure the safety of the child in the pool. The authority did not own the swimming pool or employ the pool's lifeguard or the swimming teacher, who might (subject to a finding of fact) have been negligent, but the responsibility for ensuring that the child was safe remained in any case with the local authority. The ruling emphasised that non-delegable duties of care did not fit well with a fault-based approach to negligence, which is embodied in English law, and the formation of such duties is therefore exceptional.