The 1987 Act and its Regulations enabled a local authority with proper grounds for suspecting that a safety provision had been contravened in relation to goods, to issue a ‘suspension notice’ prohibiting a person on whom it was served from supplying those goods. It would be a criminal offence to breach that prohibition. The Council became concerned about the safety of certain models of baby walker. The suppliers disagreed. The Council decided to issue a press release to warn the public and to cause the recall of the product. The Council relied upon the general ancillary power in section 111 and the general power to publish information relating to its functions in section 142 of the 1972 Act.
Held: The Council’s decision was quashed. Lord Bingham accepted the submission that: ‘What, however, was impermissible was to make a public announcement having an intention and effect which could only be achieved by implementation of clear and particular procedures prescribed in an Act of Parliament when the effect of the announcement was to deny the companies the rights and protections which Parliament had enacted they should enjoy. So to act was to circumvent the provisions of the legislation and to act unlawfully.’
It did not matter that the procedures under the 1987 Act were cumbersome and not useful for an emergency; the solution to that was amendment not circumvention.
Judges:
Lord Bingham of Cornhill CJ
Citations:
[1999] EWHC 832 (Admin), [2000] LGR 171, [2000] BLGR 171
Links:
Statutes:
Consumer Protection Act 1987, Local Government Act 1972 111 142
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – British Bankers Association, Regina (on The Application of) v The Financial Services Authority and Another Admn 20-Apr-2011
The claimant sought relief by way of judicial review from a policy statement issued by the defendants regarding the alleged widespread misselling of payment protection insurance policies, and the steps to be taken to compensate the purchasers. They . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Local Government, Administrative, Consumer
Updated: 21 July 2022; Ref: scu.279142