The applicants, representatives of voluntary organisations, challenged decisions of the local authority to withdraw their funding, saying the decision making process had been unfair.
Held: Even if it was not bound to consult, if the authority chose to consult it must do so fairly. It was for the claimant to establish that if a failed consultation took place, there was a real possibility of a different result. Those weaknesses existed here, and had not been cured in the appeal process. The decisions were to be quashed.
Judges:
Silber J
Citations:
[2004] EWHC 2124 (Admin)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Doody and Others HL 25-Jun-1993
A mandatory lifer is to be permitted to suggest the period of actual sentence to be served. The Home Secretary must give reasons for refusing a lifer’s release. What fairness requires in any particular case is ‘essentially an intuitive judgment’, . .
Cited – Regina v North and East Devon Health Authority ex parte Coughlan and Secretary of State for Health Intervenor and Royal College of Nursing Intervenor CA 16-Jul-1999
Consultation to be Early and Real Listening
The claimant was severely disabled as a result of a road traffic accident. She and others were placed in an NHS home for long term disabled people and assured that this would be their home for life. Then the health authority decided that they were . .
Cited – Regina v London Borough of Islington ex parte East Admn 1996
The court considered the obligation on an authority to consult: ‘.. the precise demands of consultation .. there according to the circumstances .. The extent and method of consultation must depend on the circumstances. Underlying what is required . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State ex parte Khan CA 4-Apr-1984
The Secretary of State had refused an entry clearance for a child to be allowed into the United Kingdom for the purpose of adoption by the applicant, but had done so upon grounds nowhere mentioned in a Home Office circular letter apparently setting . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Environment ex p Brent London Borough Council QBD 1982
The court considered a refusal by the minister to hear further representations from local authorities with regard to their rate support grants: ‘it would of course have been unrealistic not to accept that it is certainly probably that, if the . .
Cited – Regina v Chief Constable of Thames Valley ex parte Cotton 1990
In order:- ‘to make good a natural justice challenge an applicant must establish where there is a real, as opposed to purely minimal possibility that the outcome would have been different’ (Simon Brown J) Bingham LJ: ‘While cases may no doubt arise . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Local Government
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.213645