Category: Media

W v Egdell: CA 9 Nov 1989

The plaintiff had been confined to a mental hospital after killing several people by shooting. He complained that when he was to be considered for release, his psychiatrist, the defendant had broken his duty of confidence by revealing his concerns about the plaintiff to the secure hospital with his care, despite the plaintiff have withdrawn his application for transfer to a non-secure unit.
Held: A doctor’s duty of confidence to his patient and the need to preserve general reliance upon that confidence could be overriden where there was a real risk of violence to others. The maintenance of a duty of confidence between doctor and patient was not a matter of private, but of public interest, and that public interest was to balanced against a similar interest in protecting members of the public against acts of violence: ‘As between the competing public interest in the duty of confidentiality . . and the public interest in disclosure of the report, the balance came down decisively in favour of disclosure because the number and nature of the killings . . were such that decisions leading directly or indirectly to (the plaintiff’s release from a secure hospital should not be made unless the authorities responsible . . were properly able to make an inform judgment that the risk of repetition of the killings was so small as to be acceptable. Accordingly, since (the psychiatrist) had highly relevant information about (the plaintiff’s condition) he had been justified in passing it on to those responsible for making decisions . . because the suppression of that information would have deprived the hospital and the Secretary of State of information which was relevant to questions of public safety . . ‘
Bingham LJ said: ‘Only the most compelling circumstances could justify a doctor in acting in a way which would injure the immediate interests of his patient, as the patient perceived them, without obtaining his consent.’
Bingham LJ said: ‘It has never been doubted that the circumstances here were such as to impose on Dr Egdell a duty of confidence owed to W. He could not lawfully sell the contents of his report to a newspaper . . Nor could he, without a breach of the law as well as professional etiquette, discuss the case in a learned article or in his memoirs or in gossiping with friends, unless he took appropriate steps to conceal the identity of W.’
Bingham LJ, Sir Stephen Brown P Sir John May
[1990] 1 Ch 359, [1990] 2 WLR 471, [1989] EWCA Civ 13, [1990] Ch 359
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – W v Egdell 1989
The psychiatrist had been engaged by W’s solicitors to examine him and prepare a report to go to the Tribunal hearing an application for the transfer or conditional discharge of W from a secure unit. His report was damning. W withdrew the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Grobbelaar v News Group Newspapers Ltd and Another CA 18-Jan-2001
The claimant had been awarded andpound;85,000 damages in defamation after the defendant had wrongly accused him of cheating at football. The newspaper sought to appeal saying that the verdict was perverse and the defence of qualified privilege . .
Cited – Re C (A Child) FC 29-Sep-2015
There had been care proceedings as to C. The mother was treated by a psychiatrist, X, and an associate Y. They also prepared expert reports. M formally complained about X, and the charges having been dismissed, the doctors now sought disclosure of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 July 2021; Ref: scu.381731

Regina v Coughlan and Young: CACD 1976

Coughlan and Young were convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of conspiracy to cause explosions in the United Kingdom, the prosecution having limited the allegation to explosions in Birmingham and its neighbourhood. Charges had been brought in respect of the ‘sub-agreements’ or ‘sub-conspiracies’ to cause explosions in Manchester and Birmingham.
Lawton LJ said: ‘There is no difficulty in law about alleging a separate conspiracy to cause explosions in Manchester and another to cause explosions in Birmingham, even though some, or it may be all of the conspirators, may have been parties to a wider agreement to cause explosions throughout the United Kingdom, including Birmingham and Manchester. The wider agreement or conspiracy would not preclude the existence of sub-agreements or sub-conspiracies to cause explosions in particular places, and as a matter of law these sub-conspiracies or agreements could properly be charged as separate offences.’
There had been publicity following an unsuccessful plea of autrefois convict which tended to disclose an earlier conviction. Lawton LJ said: ‘It is our experience that juries in general understand the responsibility which rests upon them. They know that they have to be sure of guilt on the evidence before returning a verdict of guilty. The fault with juries nowadays lies not in convicting when they should acquit but in acquitting when they should convict. Juries are capable of disregarding that which is not properly before them. They are expected to disregard what one accused says about another in his absence. If they can do that, which is far from easy, they can disregard what has been said in a newspaper.’ and ‘There is no difficulty in law about alleging a separate conspiracy to cause explosions in Manchester and another to cause explosions in Birmingham, even though some, or it may be all of the conspirators, may have been parties to a wider agreement to cause explosions throughout the United Kingdom, including Birmingham and Manchester. The wider agreement or conspiracy would not preclude the existence of sub-agreements or sub-conspiracies to cause explosions in particular places, and as a matter of law these sub-conspiracies or agreements could properly be charged as separate offences. Acquittal or conviction on a charge of one such offence would be no bar to the trial of the same accused on another.’
Lawton LJ
[1976] 63 Cr App R 33
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Alibhai and Others CACD 30-Mar-2004
The defendants appealed against their convictions for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute counterfeit Microsoft products. They said that inadequate disclosure had been provided by Microsoft. The principal witness was a participating informant . .
Cited – Regina v Abu Hamza CACD 28-Nov-2006
hamza_rCACD2006
The defendant had faced trial on terrorist charges. He claimed that delay and the very substantial adverse publicity had made his fair trial impossible, and that it was not an offence for a foreign national to solicit murders to be carried out . .
Cited – Regina v Stone CACD 14-Feb-2001
The defendant appealed against his conviction in 1998 of murder based on a confession said to have been made to a fellow prisoner on remand. A witness supporting that confession said after the trial that he had lied under police pressure. The appeal . .
Cited – Serious Fraud Office v Papachristos and Another CACD 19-Sep-2014
The applicants challenged their convictions and sentences for conspiracy to corrupt. They owned a company manufacturing fuel additives. Technology developments meant that they came under increasing pressure on sales. They were said to have entered . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 25 July 2021; Ref: scu.237906

Re V, (Out of Hours: Reporting Restriction Order): CoP 2 Dec 2015

Reasons for granting a time limited extension for a reporting restrictions order (RRO) in this case.
Theis J
[2015] EWCOP 83
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – V v Associated Newspapers Ltd and Others CoP 9-Dec-2015
The court heard applications reating to anonymity orders made in the Court when a hearing was to be in public and the continuation of an injunction. . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 18 July 2021; Ref: scu.558197

Attorney General v Blake: ChD 23 Apr 1996

The Crown claimed that in writing a book and authorising its publication, Blake, a former security services employee, was in breach of fiduciary duties he owed to the Crown.
Held: Blake was not to be prevented from earning money from the writing of a book. Former members of the intelligence and security services owed a lifelong duty of non-disclosure in respect of secret and confidential information. But the law did not impose a duty which went beyond this.
Sir Richard Scott VC
Times 23-Apr-1996, [1997] Ch 84
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Attorney-General v Blake CA 16-Dec-1997
A former member of the security services, convicted for spying, had written a book. The AG appealed a refusal to prevent publication. The court upheld denied the appeal on the breach of fiduciary claim. The Attorney General amended his statement of . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 July 2021; Ref: scu.77950

Rhodes v OPO and Another: SC 20 May 2015

The mother sought to prevent a father from publishing a book about her child’s life. It was to contain passages she said may cause psychological harm to the 12 year old son. Mother and son lived in the USA and the family court here had no jurisdiction to grant orders protecting the child’s welfare. Instead, these proceedings were brought in his name, originally by his mother and now by his godfather as his litigation friend, alleging that publication would constitute a tort against him.
Held: The appeal was allowed, and the original order striking out the claim was restored, clearly failing to meet all but one of the requirements. ‘there is plainly a powerful case for saying that, in relation to the instant tort, liability for distressing statements, where intent to cause distress is an essential ingredient, it should be enough for the claimant to establish that he suffered significant distress as a result of the defendant’s statement. It is not entirely easy to see why, if an intention to cause the claimant significant distress is an ingredient of the tort and is enough to establish the tort in principle, the claimant should have to establish that he suffered something more serious than significant distress before he can recover any compensation. Further, the narrow restrictions on the tort should ensure that it is rarely invoked anyway.’
Lord Neuberger, President, Lady Hale, Deputy President, Lord Clarke, Lord Wilson, Lord Toulson
[2015] 2 WLR 137, [2015] UKSC 32, [2016] AC 219, [2015] EMLR 20, [2015] HRLR 11, [2015] WLR(D) 227, [2015] 4 All ER 1, UKSC 2014/0251
Bailii, WLRD, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary, SC Video Summary
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Wilkinson v Downton 8-May-1997
Thomas Wilkinson, the landlord of a public house, went off by train, leaving his wife Lavinia behind the bar. A customer of the pub, Downton played a practical joke on her. He told her, falsely, that her husband had been involved in an accident and . .
Cited – Wainwright and another v Home Office HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant and her son sought to visit her other son in Leeds Prison. He was suspected of involvement in drugs, and therefore she was subjected to strip searches. There was no statutory support for the search. The son’s penis had been touched . .
Cited – In re Guardian News and Media Ltd and Others; HM Treasury v Ahmed and Others SC 27-Jan-2010
Proceedings had been brought to challenge the validity of Orders in Council which had frozen the assets of the claimants in those proceedings. Ancillary orders were made and confirmed requiring them not to be identified. As the cases came to the . .
Cited – Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd (MGN) (No 1) HL 6-May-2004
The claimant appealed against the denial of her claim that the defendant had infringed her right to respect for her private life. She was a model who had proclaimed publicly that she did not take drugs, but the defendant had published a story . .
Cited – Cream Holdings Limited and others v Banerjee and others HL 14-Oct-2004
On her dismissal from the claimant company, Ms Banerjee took confidential papers revealing misconduct to the local newspaper, which published some. The claimant sought an injunction to prevent any further publication. The defendants argued that the . .
At First Instance – OPO v MLA and Another QBD 18-Jul-2014
A boy now sought an interim injunction to restrain his father, the defendant classical musician, from publishing his autobiography which mentioned him. The book would say that the father had suffered sexual abuse as a child at school.
Held: . .
Cited – Janvier v Sweeney 1919
During the First World War Mlle Janvier lived as a paid companion in a house in Mayfair and corresponded with her German lover who was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. Sweeney was a private detective who wanted secretly to obtain some . .
Cited – McLoughlin v O’Brian HL 6-May-1982
The plaintiff was the mother of a child who died in an horrific accident, in which her husband and two other children were also injured. She was at home at the time of the accident, but went to the hospital immediately when she had heard what had . .
Cited – Khorasandjian v Bush CA 16-Feb-1993
The plaintiff was an eighteen year old girl who had had a friendship with the defendant, aged 28. The friendship broke down and the plaintiff said she would have no more to do with him, but the defendant did not accept this. There were many . .
Cited – Bromage And Another v Prosser 1825
Bayley J distinguished ‘malice in law’, inferred from the defendant’s intentional interference with the plaintiff’s rights, from ‘malice in fact’ and Malice in common acceptation of the term means ill-will against a person, but in its legal sense it . .
Cited – Regina v Martin CCCR 1881
r_martin CCCCR
The defendant was accused of unlawful conduct in causing panic at a theatre (by turning off the lights and barring the doors) in the course of which a number of people were injured by trampling as they stampeded down a stairway. His conduct was . .
Cited – The Capital and Counties Bank Limited v George Henty and Sons HL 1882
The defendant wrote to their customers saying ‘Henty and Sons hereby give notice that they will not receive in payment cheques drawn on any of the branches of the Capital and Counties Bank.’ The contents of the circular became known and there was a . .
Cited – Mogul Steamship Company Limited v McGregor Gow and Co QBD 10-Aug-1885
Ship owners formed themselves into an association to protect their trading interests which then caused damage to rival ship owners. The plaintiffs complained about being kept out of the conference of shipowners trading between China and London.
Cited – Mayor of Bradford v Pickles HL 29-Jul-1895
The plaintiffs sought an injunction to prevent the defendant interfering with the supply of water to the city. He would have done so entirely by actions on his own land.
Held: The plaintiffs could have no property in the water until it came on . .
Cited – Allen v Flood HL 14-Dec-1898
Tort of Malicicious Inducement not Committed
The defendant, on behalf of a group of ironworkers, persuaded their employers in Milwall to stop employing the plaintiff shipwrights. There was no breach of contract. The plaintiffs alleged that this conduct gave rise to liability in tort on the . .
Not good law – Director of Public Prosecutions v Smith HL 1960
The defendant tried to avoid arrest and killed a policeman by driving off with the policeman clinging to the car.
Held: (1) The defendant committed murder because death or grievous bodily harm was foreseen by him as a ‘likely’ result of his . .
Cited – Allsop v Allsop 25-Apr-1860
Complaint was made of illness allegedly caused by a slanderous imputation of unchastity to a married woman. The woman heard the slander at third hand. It was held that the woman could not claim special damages for her illness in an action for . .
Cited – Lynch v Knight HL 17-Jul-1861
Lord Wensleydale said: ‘Mental pain or anxiety the law cannot value, and does not pretend to redress, when the unlawful act complained of causes that alone; though where material damage occurs, and is connected with it, it is impossible a jury, in . .
Cited – Victorian Railway Commissioners v Coultas PC 21-Jan-1888
(Victoria) The appellant’s gatekeeper had negligently invited the plaintiffs to cross a railway line as a train approached. There was no collision, but the plaintiff sought damages for physical and mental injuries from shock.
Held: The . .
Cited – Pugh v London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Co CA 1896
The plaintiff signalman saw that there was something wrong one of the carriages of a train approaching at full speed so that the train was in danger. He leant from the window of his signal-box and waved a red flag so that the driver might stop the . .
Cited – Dulieu v White and Sons KBD 1901
A pregnant barmaid suffered nervous shock causing her to give premature birth as a result of the tortfeasor’s horse van bursting into her bar at the Bonner Arms in Bethnal Green from the roadway. The defendant pleaded that the damages claimed were . .
Cited – Stevenson v Basham 1922
(New Zealand) The defendant made a threat to the plaintiff’s husband inside the house that she and her husband were occupying to burn it down, the threat being overheard by her when she was in a bedroom where she was lying and when she was pregnant . .
Cited – Hambrook v Stokes Brothers CA 1925
The defendant’s employee left a lorry at the top of a steep narrow street unattended, with the engine running and without having taken proper steps to secure it. The lorry ran violently down the hill. The plaintiff’s wife had been walking up the . .
Cited – Bunyan v Jordan 1-Mar-1937
(High Court of Australia) The plaintiff sought damages having been put to severe fright by a shot fired by her employer, the defendant, who had stated an intention to shoot someone, gone to a local thoroughfare with a gun, produced it and fired it. . .
Cited – Rahemtulla v Vanfed Credit Union 1984
(British Columbia Supreme Court) The plaintiff had been harassed at work, falsely accused of theft in threatening circumstances and summarily dismissed without proper cause in a humiliating fashion. The defendant submitted that to be liable for . .
Cited – Bradley v Wingnut Films Ltd 1993
(New Zealand High Court) The plaintiffs complained that a relative’s tombstone was depicted in a satiric film set in part in a cemetery, and containing a significant degree of gore and violence. The tombstone was never shown in its entirety, . .
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Wong v Parkside Health NHS Trust and Another CA 16-Nov-2001
The claimant had sued her former employer for post-traumatic stress resulting from alleged harassment at her place of work. The claimant appealed against an order refusing damages. The court had held that outside the 1997 Act which was not in force . .
Cited – Her Majesty’s Attorney General v Punch Limited and another HL 12-Dec-2002
A former MI5 agent, Mr Shayler, was to be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, and an injunction against publication was granted. The respondent published further works by Mr Shayler, and now appealed a finding that it had acted in contempt of . .
Cited – Regina v G and R HL 16-Oct-2003
The defendants, young boys, had set fire to paper and thrown the lit papers into a wheelie bin, expecting the fire to go out. In fact substantial damage was caused. The House was asked whether a conviction was proper under the section where the . .
Cited – High Parklane Consulting Inc v Lewis 16-Jan-2007
(Ontario – Superior Court of Justice) . .
Cited – Napier and Another v Pressdram Ltd CA 19-May-2009
napier_pressdramCA2009
The claimant solicitors appealed against the refusal to grant them an injunction to prevent the publication of the outcome of a complaint against them to the Law society, and of the Ombudsman’s report. They said that the material remained . .

Cited by:
Cited – Bains and Others v Moore and Others QBD 15-Feb-2017
The claimant anti-asbestos campaigners complained that the defendant investigators had infringed their various rights of privacy. They now sought discovery to support the claim.
Held: the contents of the witness statements do show that it is . .
Cited – NT 1 and NT 2 v Google Llc QBD 13-Apr-2018
Right to be Forgotten is not absolute
The two claimants separately had criminal convictions from years before. They objected to the defendant indexing third party web pages which included personal data in the form of information about those convictions, which were now spent. The claims . .
Cited – HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd ChD 11-Feb-2021
Defence had no prospect of success – Struck Out
The claimant complained that the defendant newspaper had published contents from a letter she had sent to her father. The court now considered her claims in breach of privacy and copyright, and her request for summary judgment.
Held: Warby J . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 July 2021; Ref: scu.546914

Vlaamse Gemeenschap and Vlaams Gewest v Parliament and Council: ECFI 10 Dec 2019

Action for annulment – Internal market – Fundamental freedoms – Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 – Establishment of a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services – Sub-national authority – Standing to bring proceedings – Individual concern – Inadmissibility
ECLI:EU:T:2019:848, [2019] EUECJ T-66/19_CO
Bailii
European

Updated: 13 July 2021; Ref: scu.665537

TV Play Baltic (Electronic Communications Networks and Services – Judgment): ECJ 11 Dec 2019

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Electronic communications networks and services – Directive 2002/21/EC (Framework Directive) – Article 2(m) – Provision of an electronic communications network – Concept – Directive 2002/22/EC (Universal Service Directive) – Article 31(1) – ‘Must carry’ obligation to broadcast specified radio and television channels – Operator offering a package of channels via satellite – Reasonable ‘must carry’ obligations – Conditions – Article 56 TFEU – Proportionality
[2019] WLR(D) 672, [2020] 4 WLR 12, ECLI:EU:C:2019:1063, [2020] 2 CMLR 14, [2019] EUECJ C-87/19
WLRD, Bailii
European

Updated: 13 July 2021; Ref: scu.665528

Kerner v WX and Another: QBD 6 May 2015

The claimant’s husband had been convicted for sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust. She now sought continuation of an anti-harassment injunction against news photographers taking pictures of her whilst in public with her children. There had been a new campaign after she wanted to continue her own work as a teacher and continued to live with her husband.
Held: An order would be made for the DVLA to disclose the identity of the owner of a vehicle associated with the harassment.
Warby J
[2015] EWHC 1247 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Kerner v WX and Another QBD 29-Jan-2015
Application for continuation of anti-harassment injunction against persons unknown. . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 22 June 2021; Ref: scu.546421

Barbara Rees Ltd v Cardiff County Council: Admn 3 Jul 2006

The defendant estate agency appealed its conviction for continuing to display ‘To Let’ boards for more than the permitted time. The prosecutor relied upon the signs indicating that the property had been let.
Held: The fact that the sign said that the property had been let was prima facie evidence that it had been let, and could found the conviction. If the property had not in fact been let, or was let only subject to contract, the defendant could have brought evidence to contradict the signs. It had not done so.
[2006] EWHC 1617 (Admin)
Bailii
Town and Country Planning Act 1990 224, Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992
England and Wales

Updated: 26 March 2021; Ref: scu.242956

Guardian News and Media Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court and Another: CA 25 Oct 2011

The claimant newspaper sought to appeal against a refusal by the respondent to disclose papers filed in a case before it. The court considered whether it had jurisdiction to hear an appeal.
Held: Under the 1981 Act no appeal would lie if the matter was a criminal one. The application was made after what was clearly a criminal matter, but the claimant argued that the application itself was a civil one. The authorities were confusing and the law unclear. The court found that the application though made in criminal proceedings, itself was wholly collateral to those extradition proceedings. The Court of Appeal did therefore have jurisdiction: ‘any sort of final coherence in relation to the scope and effect of section 18(1)(a) can only be provided by the Supreme Court, but I believe that, consistently with the spirit of the approach in The Great Peace [2003] QB 679, the best way of applying the ‘rather tangled’ jurisprudence developed over the past thirty-five years, and ensuring maximum coherence (or maybe it is more realistic to say, minimum incoherence) is to hold that we have jurisdiction to hear the appeal.’ In view of the arguments raised, leave was granted.
Lord Neuberger MR, Jackson, Aikens LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 1188, [2012] EMLR 11, [2012] CP Rep 5, [2011] 1 WLR 3253
Bailii
Supreme Court Act 1981 18(1)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Amand v Home Secretary and Minister of Defence of Royal Netherlands Government HL 1943
The refusal of an application for habeas corpus by a person committed to prison with a view to extradition was a decision in a ‘criminal cause or matter.’
Viscount Simon LC said said that the: ‘distinction between cases of habeas corpus in a . .
Appeal from – Guardian News and Media Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court Admn 21-Dec-2010
The claimant appealed against a refusal by the magistrate to allow access to documents filed during proceedings when the court felt that all relevant matters had been discussed openly and in detail in court.
Held: The appeal failed, and the . .
Cited – United States of America, Regina (on the Application of) v Bow Street Magistrates’ Court Admn 6-Sep-2006
The defendant a serving prisoner sought an adjournment of his extradition to a time closer to the end of the sentence he was to serve in England.
Held: The court had sympathy with the argument that where the district judge is being invited to . .
Doubted – Regina v Southampton Justices ex parte Green CA 1976
The court considered whether as the Court of Appeal, it had jurisdiction to hear an appeal against the Divisional Court’s refusal to quash an order estreating a recognisance.
Held: It did. Lord Denning MR said that ‘the matter is criminal’ if . .
Cited – Carr v Atkins CA 1987
The police had applied to a judge for an order under the 1984 Act requiring the applicant, a suspect in a fraud investigation, to produce documents falling within the definition of ‘special procedure documents’ under the Act. The applicants sought . .
Cited – In re Smalley HL 1985
Challenge by a surety to an estreatment of his recognizance was not a matter relating to a trial on indictment for the purpose of section 29(3) because it did not affect the conduct of the trial. A sensible legislative purpose can be seen for . .
Cited – Regina v Sheffield Crown Court ex parte Brownlow CA 1980
Two police officers were being brought to trial, charged with assault occasioning bodily harm. They applied to the trial judge for an order directing the prosecution to inform the defence whether any members of the jury panel had criminal . .
Cited – Regina v Lambeth Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate ex parte McComb CA 1983
The Court found that it had jurisdiction to entertain an appeal against the Divisional Court’s upholding of a decision that the Director of Public Prosecutions could freely remove exhibits, lodged in the Crown Court in criminal proceedings against . .
Cited – Regina v Waterfield QBD 1975
The defendant was convicted of importing pornographic films and magazines. One ground of appeal was that the proceedings were a nullity because the press and public had been excluded from the court room during the showing of the films.
Held: . .
Cited – A v Independent News and Media Ltd and Others CA 31-Mar-2010
a_independentCA2010
The newspapers sought leave to report proceedings before the Court of Protection in connection with a patient unable to manage his own affairs. The patient retained a possible capacity to work as a professional musician. The family wanted the . .
Cited – Day v Grant (Note) CA 1985
(January 1985) The court must look to the underlying nature of the proceedings in which the order was made and against which an appeal was sought to see to which court an appeal lay. ‘So Lord Wright was saying that you look not at the particular . .
Cited – Howell and Others, Regina v CACD 28-Feb-2003
The defendants appealed against convictions for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They had been police officers.
An application was made for the disclosure of the skeleton arguments read by the court, Judge LJ said: ‘Subject to . .
Cited – Great Peace Shipping Ltd v Tsavliris (International) Ltd CA 14-Oct-2002
The parties contracted for the hire of a ship. They were each under a mistaken impression as to its position, and a penalty became payable. The hirer claimed that the equitable doctrine of mutual mistake should forgive him liability.
Held: . .
Cited – United States Government v Montgomery and Another HL 6-Feb-2001
An English court had power to make a restraining order against the disposal of assets pending an application for confiscation pursuant to a US order. This applied even if the US original judgment predated the date on which the US was added to the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Osborn v The Parole Board SC 9-Oct-2013
Three prisoners raised questions as to the circumstances in which the Parole Board is required to hold an oral hearing before making an adverse decision. One of the appeals (Osborn) concerned a determinate sentence prisoner who was released on . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 March 2021; Ref: scu.447494

Regina v Secretary of State for The Home Department Ex Parte Simms: HL 11 Feb 1999

Ban on Prisoners talking to Journalists unlawful

The two prisoners, serving life sentences for murder, had had their appeals rejected. They continued to protest innocence, and sought to bring their campaigns to public attention through the press, having oral interviews with journalists without undertakings from the journalists not to publish any element of the interview. Their prison governors had applied guidance from the respondent to refuse such access. They argued that only if they were allowed to have oral interviews in prison with the journalists would they be able to have the safety of their convictions further investigated and to put forward a case in the media for the reconsideration of their convictions.
Held: A simple ban which prevented any prisoner speaking to journalists professionally and without discrimination was unlawful. There had been too many cases where convictions had been overturned after for example disclosure failures by prosecutors, and such miscarriages of justice have only been identified and corrected as a result of painstaking investigation by journalists. And those investigations have included oral interviews with the prisoners in prison.
Lord Steyn said: ‘Freedom of expression is, of course, intrinsically important: it is valued for its own sake. But it is well recognised that it is also instrumentally important. It serves a number of broad objectives. First, it promotes the self fulfilment of individuals in society. Secondly, in the famous words of Holmes J. (echoing John Stuart Mill), ‘the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market:’ Abrams v. United States (1919) 250 U.S. 616, 630, per Holmes J. (dissenting). Thirdly, freedom of speech is the lifeblood of democracy. The free flow of information and ideas informs political debate. It is a safety valve: people are more ready to accept decisions that go against them if they can in principle seek to influence them. It acts as a brake on the abuse of power by public officials. It facilitates the exposure of errors in the governance and administration of justice of the country.’ History has demonstrated the fallibility of the justice system, and that mistakes are sometimes only rectified after journalistic involvement. There was no fundamental interference with the limited right of free speech, and interviews for this purpose must be allowed. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is severely under-resourced. There is a positive duty on judges, when things have gone seriously wrong in the criminal justice system, to do everything possible to put it right.
Lord Hoffmann said: ‘Parliamentary sovereignty means that Parliament can, if it chooses, legislate contrary to fundamental principles of human rights. The Human Rights Act 1998 will not detract from this power. The constraints upon its exercise by Parliament are ultimately political, not legal. But the principle of legality means that Parliament must squarely confront what it is doing and accept the political cost. Fundamental rights cannot be overridden by general or ambiguous words. This is because there is too great a risk that the full implications of their unqualified meaning may have passed unnoticed in the democratic process. In the absence of express language or necessary implication to the contrary, the courts therefore presume that even the most general words were intended to be subject to the basic rights of the individual. In this way the courts of the United Kingdom, though acknowledging the sovereignty of Parliament, apply principles of constitutionality little different from those which exist in countries where the power of the legislature is expressly limited by a constitutional document.’
and ‘the principle of legality means that Parliament must squarely confront what it is doing and accept the political cost. Fundamental rights cannot be overridden by general or ambiguous words. This is because there is too great a risk that the full implications of their unqualified meaning may have passed unnoticed in the democratic process. In the absence of express language or necessary implication to the contrary, the courts therefore presume that even the most general words were intended to be subject to the basic rights of the individual. In this way the courts of the United Kingdom, though acknowledging the sovereignty of Parliament, apply principles of constitutionality little different from those which exist in countries where the power of the legislature is expressly limited by a constitutional document.’
Lord Steyn emphasised the reasons why the right to freedom of expression is so important: ‘Freedom of expression is, of course intrinsically important: it is valued for its own sake. But it is well recognised that it is also instrumentally important. It serves a number of broad objectives. First, it promotes the self-fulfilment of individuals in society. Secondly, in the famous words of Holmes J (echoing John Stuart Mill), ‘The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market’: Abrams v United States (1919) 250 US 616, 630, per Holmes J (dissenting). Thirdly, freedom of speech is the lifeblood of democracy. The free flow of information and ideas informs political debate. It is a safety valve: people are more ready to accept decisions that go against them if they can in principle seek to influence them. It acts as a brake on the abuse of power by public officials. It facilitates the exposure of errors in the governance and administration of justice of the country.’
Lord Slynn said: ‘The discretion to hear disputes, even in the area of public law, must, however, be exercised with caution and appeals which are academic between the parties should not be heard unless there is a good reason in the public interest for doing so, as for example (but only by way of example) when a discrete point of statutory construction arises which does not involve detailed consideration of facts and where a large number of similar cases exist or are anticipated so that the issue will most likely need to be resolved in the near future.’
Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Steyn, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hobhouse of Wood-borough and Lord Millett
Times 09-Jul-1999, Gazette 28-Jul-1999, [1999] UKHL 33, [2000] 2 AC 115, [1999] 3 All ER 400, [1999] 3 WLR 328, [1999] EMLR 689, (1999) 7 BHRC 411, (1999) 2 CHRLD 359
House of Lords, Bailii
Prison Rules 1964 (1964 No 388), European Convention on Human Rights 10, Prison Act 1952 47(1), Human Rights Act 1998
England and Wales
Citing:
Approved – Regina v Secretary of State Home Department, ex parte Leech (No 2) CA 20-May-1993
Prison rules were ultra vires in so far as they provided for reading letters between prisoners and their legal advisers. Every citizen has a right of unimpeded access to the court. A prisoner’s unimpeded access to a solicitor for the purpose of . .
Independent 20-May-93, Times 20-May-93, [1994] QB 198, [1993] EWCA Civ 12, [1993] 3 WLR 1125
Appeal from – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Simms; ex parte O’Brien; ex parte Main CA 9-Dec-1997
The removal of a prisoner’s right to talk to the press is part of the process of imprisonment. Prisoners’ letters could be read to the extent necessary to prove that they contained legally privileged material. A prisoner has no right to an oral . .
Gazette 08-Jan-98, Times 09-Dec-97, [1999] QB 349
Cited – Raymond v Honey HL 4-Mar-1981
The defendant prison governor had intercepted a prisoner’s letter to the Crown Office for the purpose of raising proceedings to have the governor committed for an alleged contempt of court.
Held: The governor was in contempt of court. Subject . .
[1982] AC 1, [1981] UKHL 8, [1983] 1 AC 1, [1982] 1 All ER 756, (1982) 75 Cr App R 16, [1982] 2 WLR 465
At first instance – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte Ian Simms and Michael Alan Mark O’Brien QBD 19-Dec-1996
A full restriction on the use of material emanating from a prison visit was unlawful as an interference with the right of free speech of the prisoner: ‘The blanket prohibition on making use of material obtained in a visit is not, on the evidence . .
Times 17-Jan-97, [1996] EWHC Admin 388
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte H and Others, Regina v Same ex parte Hickey CA 29-Jul-1994
A discretionary life prisoner who had been transferred to a mental hospital is not automatically eligible for a certificate under the section. The right conferred on a discretionary life prisoner by section 34 of the 1991 Act did not extend to those . .
Times 29-Jul-94, [1995] QB 43, [1995] 1 WLR 734
Cited – Attorney-General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No 2) (‘Spycatcher’) HL 13-Oct-1988
Loss of Confidentiality Protection – public domain
A retired secret service employee sought to publish his memoirs from Australia. The British government sought to restrain publication there, and the defendants sought to report those proceedings, which would involve publication of the allegations . .
[1990] 1 AC 109, [1988] UKHL 6, [1987] 1 WLR 776, [1988] 3 All ER 545
Cited – Derbyshire County Council v Times Newspapers Ltd and Others HL 18-Feb-1993
Local Council may not Sue in Defamation
Local Authorities must be open to criticism as political and administrative bodies, and so cannot be allowed to sue in defamation. Such a right would operate as ‘a chill factor’ on free speech. Freedom of speech was the underlying value which . .
Gazette 07-Apr-93, [1993] AC 534, [1993] UKHL 18, [1992] UKHL 6, [1992] QB 770, [1992] 3 WLR 28, [1993] 1 All ER 1011
Cited – Abraham v United States 1919
(US Supreme Court) Holmes J (dissenting): ‘the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.’ . .
(1919) 250 US 616
Cited – Silver v United Kingdom ECHR 1980
(Commission) Complaint was made as to the censorship of prisoners’ correspondence. The censorship of prisoners’ correspondence was ancillary to prison rules restricting the contents of correspondence. The Commission, therefore, and the Court had to . .
(1980) 3 EHRR 475
Cited – Silver And Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 25-Mar-1983
There had been interference with prisoners’ letters by prison authorities. The Commission considered Standing Orders and Circular Instructions in relation to restrictions on correspondence. The rules were not available to prisoners and were . .
6205/73, [1983] 5 EHRR 347, [1983] ECHR 5, 7052/75, 5947/72
Cited – Regina v Ministry of Defence Ex Parte Smith and Others QBD 7-Jun-1995
An MOD ban on employing homosexuals was not Wednesbury unreasonable, even though it might be out of date. Pannick (counsel for the applicant, approved): ‘The court may not interfere with the exercise of an administrative discretion on substantive . .
Times 13-Jun-95, Independent 08-Jun-95
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex Parte Pierson HL 21-May-1997
The Home Secretary may not later extend the tariff for a lifer after it had been set by an earlier Home Secretary merely to satisfy needs of retribution and deterrence. ‘A power conferred by Parliament in general terms is not to be taken to . .
Times 28-Jul-97, Gazette 01-Oct-97, [1997] UKHL 37, [1998] AC 539, [1997] 3 All ER 577, [1997] 3 WLR 492
Cited – Campbell v The United Kingdom ECHR 25-Mar-1992
The applicant complained about the compatibility with the European Convention of the Prisons rule 74(4) which provided that ‘every letter to or from a prisoner shall be read by the Governor . . and it shall be within the discretion of the Governor . .
13590/88, (1992) 15 EHRR 137, [1992] ECHR 41
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte O’Dhuibir and Another CA 27-Feb-1997
The insistence on the use of glass screens and no physical contact between a prisoner and visitors was in exceptional circumstances upheld even for visits by friends and relatives. . .
[1997] EWCA Civ 1110
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex Parte Bamber CA 15-Feb-1996
The right of a prisoner to provide a recorded message for a radio station could properly be curtailed. . .
Unreported 15 February 1996

Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Special Commissioner And Another, ex parte Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd HL 16-May-2002
The inspector issued a notice requiring production of certain documents. The respondents refused to produce them, saying that they were protected by legal professional privilege.
Held: Legal professional privilege is a fundamental part of . .
Times 20-May-02, Gazette 20-Jun-02, [2002] UKHL 21, [2002] 2 WLR 1299, [2003] 1 AC 563, 74 TC 511, [2002] STC 786, [2002] BTC 223, [2002] 3 All ER 1, [2002] HRLR 42, [2002] NPC 70, [2002] STI 806, 4 ITL Rep 809
Cited – Cream Holdings Limited and others v Banerjee and The Liverpool Daily Post and Echo Limited CA 13-Feb-2003
The defendants considered publication of alleged financial irregularities by the claimant, who sought to restrain publication. The defendants argued that under the Act, prior restraint should not be used unless a later court would be likely to . .
[2003] EWCA Civ 103, Gazette 17-Apr-03, [2003] Ch 650, [2003] 3 WLR 999, [2003] 2 All ER 318, [2003] EMLR 16, [2003] HRLR 18
Cited – Nilsen, Regina (on the Application of) v Governor of HMP Full Sutton and Another Admn 19-Dec-2003
The prisoner complained that having written an autobiography, the manuscript materials had been withheld, and that this interfered with his rights of freedom of expression.
Held: Such an action by the prison authorities was not incompatible . .
[2003] EWHC 3160 (Admin), Times 02-Jan-04, [2004] EMLR 9
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte Mellor CA 4-Apr-2001
A prisoner had no right to facilities to artificially inseminate his wife. In this case, he might not be released for several years, and there were no medical reasons advanced for finding exceptional reasons under the Department policy. Provided the . .
Gazette 01-Jun-01, Times 01-May-01, [2001] EWCA Civ 472, [2002] QB 13, [2001] 3 WLR 533, [2001] 2 FLR 1158, (2001) 59 BMLR 1, [2001] 2 FCR 153, [2001] HRLR 38, [2001] Fam Law 736
Cited – Regina v Connor and another; Regina v Mirza HL 22-Jan-2004
The defendants sought an enquiry as to events in the jury rooms on their trials. They said that the secrecy of a jury’s deliberations did not fit the human right to a fair trial. In one case, it was said that jurors believed that the defendant’s use . .
[2004] UKHL 2, Times 23-Jan-04, [2004] 2 WLR 201, [2004] 1 AC 1118, [2004] HRLR 11, 16 BHRC 279, [2004] 2 Cr App R 8, [2004] 1 All ER 925
Cited – E v Secretary of State for the Home Department etc CA 2-Feb-2004
The court was asked as to the extent of the power of the IAT and Court of Appeal to reconsider a decision which it later appeared was based upon an error of fact, and the extent to which new evidence to demonstrate such an error could be admitted. . .
[2004] EWCA Civ 49, Times 09-Feb-04, [2004] QB 1044, [2004] INLR 268, [2004] BLGR 463, [2004] 2 WLR 1351
Cited – Kent County Council v The Mother, The Father, B (By Her Children’s Guardian); Re B (A Child) (Disclosure) FD 19-Mar-2004
The council had taken the applicant’s children into care alleging that the mother had harmed them. In the light of the subsequent cases casting doubt on such findings, the mother sought the return of her children. She applied now that the hearings . .
[2004] EWHC 411 (Fam), [2004] 2 FLR 142, [2004] EWHC Fam 411, [2004] Lloyds Rep Med 303
Cited – B (A Minor) v Director of Public Prosecutions HL 23-Feb-2000
Prosecution to prove absence of genuine belief
To convict a defendant under the 1960 Act, the prosecution had the burden of proving the absence of a genuine belief in the defendant’s mind that the victim was 14 or over. The Act itself said nothing about any mental element, so the assumption must . .
Times 25-Feb-00, Gazette 16-Mar-00, [2000] 2 AC 428, [2000] UKHL 13, [2000] 2 WLR 452, [2000] 1 All ER 833, [2000] Crim LR 403, [2000] 2 Cr App R 65
Cited – Gillan and Quinton, Regina (on the Application of) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Another CA 29-Jul-2004
The appellants had challenged the lawfulness of being stopped and searched by police. The officers relied on an authorisation made under the 2000 Act. They had been on their way to attending an arms fair, intending to demonstrate.
Held: The . .
[2004] EWCA Civ 1067, Times 12-Aug-04, [2004] 3 WLR 1144, [2005] QB 388
Cited – Regina v Carroll and Al-Hasan and Secretary of State for Home Department Admn 16-Feb-2001
The claimants challenged the instruction that they must squat whilst undergoing a strip search in prison. A dog search had given cause to supect the presence of explosives in the wing, and the officers understood that such explosives might be hidden . .
[2001] EWHC Admin 110
Cited – Nilsen v HM Prison Full Sutton and Another CA 17-Nov-2004
The prisoner, a notorious murderer had begun to write his autobiography. His solicitor wished to return a part manuscript to him in prison to be finished. The prison did not allow it, and the prisoner claimed infringement of his article 10 rights. . .
[2004] EWCA Civ 1540, Times 23-Nov-04, [2005] 1 WLR 1028
Cited – Bowman v Fels (Bar Council and Others intervening) CA 8-Mar-2005
The parties had lived together in a house owned in the defendant’s name and in which she claimed an interest. The claimant’s solicitors notified NCIS that they thought the defendant had acted illegally in setting off against his VAT liability the . .
[2005] 4 All ER 609, [2005] EWCA Civ 226, Times 14-Mar-05, [2006] 1 WLR 3083
Cited – Wilkinson, Regina (on the Application Of) v Inland Revenue HL 5-May-2005
The claimant said that the widows’ bereavement tax allowance available to a wife surviving her husband should be available to a man also if it was not to be discriminatory.
Held: Similar claims had been taken before the Human Rights Act to the . .
[2005] UKHL 30, Times 06-May-05
Cited – Roberts v Parole Board HL 7-Jul-2005
Balancing Rights of Prisoner and Society
The appellant had been convicted of the murder of three police officers in 1966. His tariff of thirty years had now long expired. He complained that material put before the Parole Board reviewing has case had not been disclosed to him.
Held: . .
[2005] UKHL 45, [2005] 2 AC 738, [2005] HRLR 38, [2005] UKHRR 939, [2006] 1 All ER 39, [2005] RPC 10, [2005] 3 WLR 152
Cited – Tangney v The Governor of HMP Elmley and Another CA 29-Jul-2005
The claimant was a serving a life sentence. During prison disciplinary proceedings he was refused legal and other assistance, and an outside tribunal on the basis that since any finding would not lead to any loss of remission or extra time, his . .
[2005] EWCA Civ 1009, Times 30-Aug-05, [2005] HRLR 1220, [2005] 2 Prison LR 253
Cited – North Cyprus Tourism Centre Ltd and Another, Regina (on the Application Of) v Transport for London Admn 28-Jul-2005
The defendants had prevented the claimants from advertising their services in North Cyprus on their buses, and justified this saying that the Crown did not recognise the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus since it was the result of an unlawful . .
[2005] EWHC 1698 (Admin), Times 24-Aug-05
Cited – Energy Financing Team Ltd and others v The Director of the Serious Fraud Office, Bow Street Magistrates Court Admn 22-Jul-2005
The claimants sought to set aside warrants and executions under them to provide assistance to a foreign court investigating alleged unlawful assistance to companies in Bosnia Herzegovina.
Held: The issue of such a warrant was a serious step. . .
[2005] EWHC 1626 (Admin), [2006] 1 WLR 1316
Cited – Regina v Ashworth Hospital Authority (Now Mersey Care National Health Service Trust) ex parte Munjaz HL 13-Oct-2005
The claimant was detained in a secure Mental Hospital. He complained at the seclusions policy applied by the hospital, saying that it departed from the Guidance issued for such policies by the Secretary of State under the Act.
Held: The House . .
Times 18-Oct-05, [2005] UKHL 58, [2005] 2 WLR 695, [2006] 2 AC 148, [2006] Lloyds Rep Med 1, [2006] 4 All ER 736, [2005] MHLR 276, [2005] HRLR 42, (2005) 86 BMLR 84
Cited – Jackson and others v Attorney General HL 13-Oct-2005
The applicant sought to challenge the 2004 Hunting Act, saying that it had been passed under the provisions of the 1949 Parliament Act which was itself an unlawful extension of the powers given by the 1911 Parliament Act to allow the House of . .
[2005] UKHL 56, Times 14-Oct-05, [2006] 1 AC 262, [2005] 2 WLR 87, [2005] 4 All ER 1253, [2006] AC 262
Cited – A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department (No 2) HL 8-Dec-2005
The applicants had been detained following the issue of certificates issued by the respondent that they posed a terrorist threat. They challenged the decisions of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission saying that evidence underlying the . .
[2005] UKHL 71, Times 09-Dec-05, [2005] 3 WLR 1249, [2006] 2 AC 221, [2006] 1 All ER 575, 19 BHRC 441, [2006] UKHRR 225, [2006] HRLR 6
Cited – Singh and others v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police QBD 4-Nov-2005
A play was presented which was seen by many Sikhs as offensive. Protesters were eventually ordered to disperse under s30 of the 2003 Act. The defendants appealed their convictions for having breached that order, saying that it interfered with their . .
[2005] EWHC 2840 (Admin)
Cited – Mersey Care NHS Trust v Ackroyd QBD 7-Feb-2006
The trust, operators of Ashworth Secure Hospital sought from the defendant journalist disclosure of the name of their employee who had revealed to the defendant matters about the holding of Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer, and in particular medical . .
[2006] EWHC 107 (QB), Times 09-Feb-06
Cited – Watkins v Home Office and others HL 29-Mar-2006
The claimant complained of misfeasance in public office by the prisons for having opened and read protected correspondence whilst he was in prison. The respondent argued that he had suffered no loss. The judge had found that bad faith was . .
[2006] UKHL 17, Times 03-Apr-06, [2006] 2 WLR 807, [2006] 2 AC 395
Cited – Singh, Regina (on the Application of) v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police CA 28-Jul-2006
Sikh protesters set out to picket a theatre production which they considered to offend their religion. The respondent used a existing ASBO dispersal order which had been obtained for other purposes, to control the demonstration.
Held: The . .
[2006] EWCA Civ 1118, Times 15-Aug-06, [2006] 1 WLR 3374, [2007] 2 All ER 297
Cited – Norfolk County Council v Webster and others FD 1-Nov-2006
The claimants wished to claim that they were victims of a miscarriage of justice in the way the Council had dealt with care proceedings. They sought that the proceedings should be reported without the children being identified.
Held: A judge . .
[2006] EWHC 2733 (Fam), [2007] EMLR 199, (2007) HRLR 3, [2007] 1 FLR 1146, [2007] HRLR 3, [2008] 1 FCR 440, [2007] Fam Law 399
Cited – Mersey Care NHS Trust v Ackroyd CA 21-Feb-2007
The defendant journalist had published confidential material obtained from the claimant’s secure hospital at Ashworth. The hospital now appealed against the refusal of an order for him to to disclose his source.
Held: The appeal failed. Given . .
[2007] EWCA Civ 101, 94 BMLR 84, [2008] EMLR 1, [2007] HRLR 19
Cited – G, Regina (on the Application of) v Nottingham City Council Admn 1-Feb-2008
The respondent authority had removed the child from the mother at birth but without first obtaining any court authority. The court had made a peremptory order for the return of the child. The court explained its actions.
Held: Neither social . .
[2008] EWHC 152 (Admin), [2008] 1 FLR 1660
Cited – A, K, M, Q and G v HM Treasury Admn 24-Apr-2008
The applicants were suspected of terrorist associations. Their bank accounts and similar had been frozen. They challenged the Order in Council under which the orders had been made without an opportunity for parliamentary challenge or approval.
[2008] EWHC 869 (Admin), Times 05-May-08
Cited – Juncal, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and others CA 25-Jul-2008
The claimant appealed dismissal of his claim for wrongful imprisonment having been detained in 1997 on being found unfit to plead to an offence of violence.
Held: Parliament had a legitimate concern for the protection of the public, and . .
[2008] EWCA Civ 869
Cited – Bancoult, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No 2) HL 22-Oct-2008
The claimants challenged the 2004 Order which prevented their return to their homes on the Chagos Islands. The islanders had been taken off the island to leave it for use as a US airbase. In 2004, the island was no longer needed, and payment had . .
[2008] UKHL 61, (2008) 158 NLJ 1530, [2008] 3 WLR 955, [2008] 4 All ER 1055, [2009] 1 AC 453
Cited – Misick, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Admn 1-May-2009
The former premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands sought to challenge the constitutionality of the 2009 order which was to allow suspension of parts of the Constitution and imposing a direct administration, on a final report on alleged corruption. . .
[2009] EWHC 1039 (Admin)
Cited – Mohamed, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No 4) Admn 4-Feb-2009
In an earlier judgment, redactions had been made relating to reports by the US government of its treatment of the claimant when held by them at Guantanamo bay. The claimant said he had been tortured and sought the documents to support his defence of . .
[2009] EWHC 152 (Admin)
Cited – HM Treasury v Ahmed and Others SC 27-Jan-2010
The claimants objected to orders made freezing their assets under the 2006 Order, after being included in the Consolidated List of suspected members of terrorist organisations.
Held: The orders could not stand. Such orders were made by the . .
[2010] UKSC 2, UKSC 2009/0016, [2010] UKHRR 204, [2010] 2 WLR 378, [2010] WLR (D) 12, [2010] 2 AC 534, [2010] 4 All ER 829, [2010] Lloyd’s Rep FC 217
Cited – Zagorski and Baze, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Others Admn 29-Nov-2010
The claimants, in the US awaiting execution for murders, challenged the permitting by the defendant for export of the chemical Sodium Thipental which would be used for their execution. The respondent said that its use in general anaesthesia practice . .
[2010] EWHC 3110 (Admin), [2011] ACD 33, [2011] Eu LR 315, [2011] HRLR 6
Cited – The Child Poverty Action Group v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 8-Dec-2010
The Action Group had obtained a declaration that, where an overpayment of benefits had arisen due to a miscalculation by the officers of the Department, any process of recovering the overpayment must be by the Act, and that the Department could not . .
[2010] UKSC 54, UKSC 2009/0202, [2011] 1 All ER 729, [2011] 2 AC 15, [2011] 2 WLR 1, [2011] PTSR 185
Cited – Forsyth, Regina v, Regina v Mabey SC 23-Feb-2011
The defendants were to face trial on charges of making funds available to Iraq in breach of the 2000 Order. They said that the 2000 Order was ultra vires and ineffective, not having been made ‘forthwith’ after the UN resolution it was based upon, . .
UKSC 2010/0227, UKSC 2010/0226, [2011] UKSC 9, [2011] Lloyd’s Rep FC 232, [2011] 2 All ER 165, [2011] 2 WLR 277, [2011] 2 AC 69
Cited – Kelly (A Minor) v British Broadcasting Corporation FD 25-Jul-2000
K, aged 16, had left home to join what was said to be a religious sect. His whereabouts were unknown. He had been made a ward of court and the Official Solicitor was appointed to represent his interests. He had sent messages to say that he was well . .
[2000] EWHC Fam 2, [2000] EWHC 3 (Fam), [2001] 1 All ER 323, [2000] 3 FCR 509, [2000] Fam Law 886, [2001] 2 WLR 253, [2001] Fam 59, [2001] 1 FLR 197, FD/00P10636
Cited – Kelly (A Minor) v British Broadcasting Corporation FD 25-Jul-2000
K, aged 16, had left home to join what was said to be a religious sect. His whereabouts were unknown. He had been made a ward of court and the Official Solicitor was appointed to represent his interests. He had sent messages to say that he was well . .
[2000] EWHC Fam 2, [2000] EWHC 3 (Fam), [2001] 1 All ER 323, [2000] 3 FCR 509, [2000] Fam Law 886, [2001] 2 WLR 253, [2001] Fam 59, [2001] 1 FLR 197, FD/00P10636
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Anufrijeva HL 26-Jun-2003
The appellant challenged the withdrawal of her benefits payments. She had applied for asylum, and been granted reduced rate income support. A decision was made refusing her claim, but that decision was, by policy, not communicated to her for several . .
[2003] UKHL 36, Times 27-Jun-03, Gazette 04-Sep-03, [2003] INLR 521, [2003] HRLR 31, [2003] Imm AR 570, [2004] 2 WLR 603, [2004] 1 AC 604, [2004] 1 All ER 833
Cited – AXA General Insurance Ltd and Others v Lord Advocate and Others SC 12-Oct-2011
Standing to Claim under A1P1 ECHR
The appellants had written employers’ liability insurance policies. They appealed against rejection of their challenge to the 2009 Act which provided that asymptomatic pleural plaques, pleural thickening and asbestosis should constitute actionable . .
UKSC 2011/0108, [2011] UKSC 46, 2011 SLT 1061, [2012] 1 AC 868, (2011) 122 BMLR 149, [2011] 3 WLR 871, [2012] HRLR 3, [2011] UKHRR 1221
Cited – British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Ahmad Admn 11-Jan-2012
The BBC wished to interview the prisoner who had been detained pending extradition to the US since 2004, and now challenged decision to refuse the interview.
Held: The claim succeeded. The decision was quashed and must be retaken. If ever any . .
[2012] EWHC 13 (Admin)
Cited – Nicklinson v Ministry of Justice and Others QBD 12-Mar-2012
The claimant suffered locked-in syndrome and sought relief in a form which would allow others to assist him in committing suicide. The court considered whether the case should be allowed to proceed rather than to be struck out as hopeless.
124 BMLR 191, [2012] Med LR 383, (2012) 15 CCL Rep 427, [2012] WLR(D) 75, (2012) 124 BMLR 191, [2012] HRLR 16, [2012] EWHC 304 (QB)
Cited – ANS and Another v ML SC 11-Jul-2012
The mother opposed adoption proceedings, and argued that the provision in the 2007 Act, allowing a court to dispense with her consent, infringed her rights under Article 8 and was therefore made outwith the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
[2012] UKSC 30, UKSC 2012/0105
Cited – Prudential Plc and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Special Commissioner of Income Tax and Another SC 23-Jan-2013
The appellants resisted disclosure to the revenue of advice it had received. It claimed legal advice privilege (LAP), though the advice was from its accountants.
Held: (Lords Sumption and Clarke dissenting) LAP applies to all communications . .
[2013] WLR(D) 20, [2013] UKSC 1, UKSC 2010/0215
Cited – Bank Mellat v Her Majesty’s Treasury (No 1) SC 19-Jun-2013
Closed Material before Supreme Court
Under the 2009 order, the appellant Bank had been effectively shut down as to its operations within the UK. It sought to use the appeal procedure, and now objected to the use of closed material procedure. The Supreme Court asked itself whether it . .
[2013] UKSC 38, UKSC 2011/0040, [2013] WLR(D) 244, [2014] AC 700, [2013] Lloyd’s Rep FC 557, [2013] 4 All ER 495
Cited – AJA and Others v Commissioner of Police for The Metropolis and Others CA 5-Nov-2013
The Court was asked whether the Investigatory Powers Tribunal had the power to investigate whether police officers acrting as undercover agents, and having sexual relations with those they were themselves investigating had infringed the human rights . .
[2013] EWCA Civ 1342, [2013] WLR(D) 424, [2014] 1 All ER 882, [2014] 1 WLR 285
Cited – Core Issues Trust v Transport for London Admn 22-Mar-2013
The claimant sought judicial review of the decision made by TfL not to allow an advertisement on behalf of the Trust to appear on the outside of its buses. It was to read: ‘NOT GAY! EX-GAY, POST-GAY AND PROUD. GET OVER IT!’. The decision was said to . .
[2013] EWHC 651 (Admin), [2013] PTSR 1161, [2013] PTSR 1161
Cited – Hughes, Regina v SC 31-Jul-2013
Uninsured Driver Not Guilty of Causing Death
The appellant though an uninsured driver, was driving without fault when another vehicle veered across the road. The other driver died from his injuries, and the appellant convicted of causing his death whilst uninsured. At trial he succeeded in . .
[2013] UKSC 56, [2013] WLR(D) 324, [2013] 1 WLR 2461, [2013] 4 All ER 613, [2013] RTR 31, [2014] 1 Cr App R 6, [2014] Crim LR 234, UKSC 2011/0240
Cited – Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 12-Nov-2014
The claimant had supported the grant of a visa to a woman in order to speak to members of Parliament who was de facto leader of an Iranian organsation which had in the past supported terrorism and had been proscribed in the UK, but that proscription . .
[2014] UKSC 60, [2014] WLR(D) 479, [2014] 3 WLR 1404, UKSC 2013/0098
Cited – Nunn, Regina (on The Application of) v Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary and Another SC 18-Jun-2014
Limits to Duty To Investigate
The claimant had been convicted of a murder. He continued to protest his innocence, and now sought judicial review of the respondent’s decision not to act upon his requests for further investigations which might prove his innocence.
Held: The . .
[2014] 4 All ER 21, [2015] 1 AC 225, [2014] 2 Cr App R 22, [2014] 3 WLR 77, [2015] Crim LR 76, UKSC 2012/0175, [2014] UKSC 37, [2014] WLR(D) 265
Cited – H v A (No2) FD 17-Sep-2015
The court had previously published and then withdrawn its judgment after third parties had been able to identify those involved by pulling together media and internet reports with the judgment.
Held: The judgment case should be published in . .
[2015] EWHC 2630 (Fam)
Cited – Evans and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Attorney General SC 26-Mar-2015
The Attorney General appealed against a decision for the release under the Act and Regulations of letters from HRH The Prince of Wales to various ministers and government departments.
Held: The appeal failed (Majority). The A-G had not been . .
[2015] UKSC 21, [2015] 2 WLR 813, [2015] WLR(D) 151, [2015] 4 All ER 395, [2015] 1 AC 1787, [2015] 2 CMLR 43, [2015] 2 WLR 813, [2015] FSR 26, [2015] Env LR 34, UKSC 2014/0137
Cited – Miller and Dos Santos v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and Others QBD 13-Nov-2016
Article 50 Notice Requires Parliament’s Authority
The applicant challenged a decision by the respondent that he could use Crown prerogative powers to issue a notice under section 50 TUE to initiate the United Kingdom leaving the EU following the referendum under the 2015 Act.
Held: Once the . .
[2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin), [2016] WLR(D) 564
Cited – Miller and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Exiting The European Union SC 24-Jan-2017
Parliament’s Approval if statute rights affected
In a referendum, the people had voted to leave the European Union. That would require a notice to the Union under Article 50 TEU. The Secretary of State appealed against an order requiring Parliamentary approval before issuing the notice, he saying . .
[2017] UKSC 5, [2017] 2 WLR 583, [2017] WLR(D) 53, UKSC 2016/0196, [2017] NI 141, [2018] AC 61, [2017] HRLR 2, [2017] 1 All ER 593, [2017] 2 CMLR 15
Cited – Beghal v Director of Public Prosecutions SC 22-Jul-2015
Questions on Entry must be answered
B was questioned at an airport under Schedule 7 to the 2000 Act, and required to answer questions asked by appropriate officers for the purpose set out. She refused to answer and was convicted of that refusal , contrary to paragraph 18 of that . .
[2015] UKSC 49, [2015] WLR(D) 330, [2016] AC 88, [2015] HRLR 15, [2015] 2 Cr App R 34, [2016] 1 All ER 483, [2015] 3 WLR 344, UKSC 2013/0243
Cited – Ingenious Media Holdings Plc and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Revenue and Customs SC 19-Oct-2016
The tax payer complained that the Permanent Secretary for Tax had, in an off the record briefing disclosed tax details regarding a film investment scheme. Despite the off the record basis, details were published in a newspaper. His claims had been . .
[2016] UKSC 54, [2017] 1 All ER 95, [2016] BTC 41, [2016] WLR(D) 540, [2016] STC 2306, [2016] 1 WLR 4164, [2016] STI 2746, UKSC 2015/0082
Cited – Privacy International, Regina (on The Application of) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal and Others SC 15-May-2019
The Court was asked whether the actions of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal were amenable to judicial review: ‘what if any material difference to the court’s approach is made by any differences in context or wording, and more particularly the . .
[2019] UKSC 22
Cited – B (Algeria) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 8-Feb-2018
Bail conditions only after detention
B had been held under immigration detention, but released by SIAC, purportedly in conditional bail, after they found there was no realistic prospect of his deportation because he had not disclosed his true identity. The court was asked ‘whether . .
[2018] UKSC 5, [2018] WLR(D) 81, [2018] AC 418, [2018] HRLR 10, [2018] 2 All ER 759, [2018] 2 WLR 651, [2018] INLR 315, UKSC 2015/0147
Cited – The Conservative and Unionist Party v The Election Commissioner CA 23-Nov-2010
A losing candidate at a local election alleged corrupt and illegal practices relating to the entry of non-existent people on the electoral roll and using postal votes. The Election Commissioner found this proved and the election void, and awarded . .
[2010] EWCA Civ 1332, [2011] PTSR 416

These lists may be incomplete.
Leading Case
Updated: 10 December 2020; Ref: scu.135147

Purcell v Sowler: CA 1877

A Manchester newspaper reported a public meeting of poor-law guardians, in which a medical officer was said to have neglected to attend pauper patients when sent for.
Held: Publication was not privileged. The Court looked beyond the subject-matter, saying the administration of the poor-law was a matter of national concern, but that there was no duty to report charges made in the absence of the medical officer and without his having had any opportunity to meet them. The meeting was a privileged occasion for the speaker, but publication in the press was not. ‘This review of the authorities shows that, save where the publication is of a report which falls into one of the recognised privileged categories, the court must look at the circumstances of the case before it in order to ascertain whether the occasion of the publication was privileged. It is not enough that the publication should be of general interest to the public. The public must have a legitimate interest in receiving the information contained in it, and there must be a correlative duty in the publisher to publish, which depends also on the status of the information which he receives, at any rate where the information is being made public for the first time.’
Cockburn CJ said that ‘it is impossible to doubt that the administration of the poor-law is a matter of national concern’
Mellish LJ observed: ‘there is no reason why the charges should be made public before the person charged has been told of the charges, and has had the opportunity of meeting them . . Such a communication as the present ought to be confined in the first instance to those whose duty it is to investigate the charges.’
References: (1877) LR 2 CP 215
Judges: Mellish LJ, Fox LJ and Bramwell LJ
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd and others HL 28-Oct-1999
    Fair Coment on Political Activities
    The defendant newspaper had published articles wrongly accusing the claimant, the former Prime Minister of Ireland of duplicity. The paper now appealed, saying that it should have had available to it a defence of qualified privilege because of the . .
    (Times 29-Oct-99, Gazette 25-Nov-99, Gazette 17-Nov-99, , , [2001] 2 AC 127, [1999] UKHL 45, [1999] 4 All ER 609, [1999] 3 WLR 1010, [2000] EMLR 1, [2000] HRLR 134, 7 BHRC 289)
  • Cited – Loutchansky v Times Newspapers Limited (No 2) CA 12-Mar-2001
    The defendants appealed against a refusal to allow them to amend their pleadings. They wished to include allegations as to matters which were unknown to the journalist at the time of publication.
    Held: It is necessary for the defendants to . .
    (, [2001] EWCA Civ 536)
  • Cited – Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd QBD 2-Oct-2009
    The defendant had published a story in its newspaper. At that time it attracted Reynolds qualified privilege. After the circumstances changed, the paper offered an updating item. That offer was rejected as inadequate.
    Held: The qualified . .
    (, [2009] EWHC 2375 (QB), Times 23-Oct-09, [2010] EMLR 8)
  • Cited – Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd CA 13-Jul-2010
    The claimant police officer complained of an article he said was defamatory in saying he was being investigated for allegations of accepting bribes. The article remained on the internet even after he was cleared. Each party appealed interim orders. . .
    (, [2010] EWCA Civ 804, [2010] WLR (D) 187, [2010] EMLR 26, [2011] 1 WLR 153)
  • Cited – Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd SC 21-Mar-2012
    The defendant had published an article which was defamatory of the claimant police officer, saying that he was under investigation for alleged corruption. The inquiry later cleared him. The court was now asked whether the paper had Reynolds type . .
    (, [2012] UKSC 11, , UKSC 2010/0166, , , [2012] 2 WLR 760, [2012] WLR(D) 93, [2012] EMLR 21, [2012] 4 All ER 913, [2012] 2 AC 273, [2012] HRLR 18)

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 27 November 2020; Ref: scu.194508

Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand v Alex Harvey Industries: 1980

The rule against a newspaper being ordered to disclose the source of its information in defamation proceedings was extended to apply also in slander of goods.
References: [1980] 1 NZLR 163
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – British Steel Corporation v Granada Television Ltd HL 7-May-1980
    The defendant had broadcast a TV programme using material confidential to the plaintiff, who now sought disclosure of the identity of the presumed thief.
    Held: (Lord Salmon dissenting) The courts have never recognised a public interest right . .
    ([1981] AC 1096, [1981] 1 All ER 452, [1980] 3 WLR 774)

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 27 November 2020; Ref: scu.193361

Spain v Commission: ECFI 26 Nov 2015

ECJ Judgment – State aid – Digital television – Aid for the deployment of digital terrestrial television in remote and less urbanized areas in Spain – Decision declaring the aid partly compatible and partly incompatible with the internal market – Concept of undertaking – Economic activity – Advantage – Service of general economic interest – Distortion of competition – Article 107, paragraph 3, c) TFEU – Duty of care – Reasonable time – Legal certainty – Equal treatment – Proportionality – Subsidiarity – The right to information
References: T-461/13, [2015] EUECJ T-461/13
Links: Bailii

Last Update: 15 October 2020; Ref: scu.556053

Verein Fur Konsumenteninformation v A1 Telekom Austria AG: ECJ 26 Nov 2015

ECJ Judgment – Reference for a preliminary ruling – Directive 2002/22/EC – Electronic communications networks and services – Users’ rights – Right of subscribers to terminate their contract without penalty – Changes to charges under terms of the contract – Increase in charges in line with increase in the consumer price index
References: C-326/14, [2015] EUECJ C-326/14, ECLI:EU:C:2015:782
Links: Bailii
Statutes: Directive 2002/22/EC

Last Update: 15 October 2020; Ref: scu.556131

Maiden Outdoor Advertising Ltd , Regina (on the Application Of) v Lambeth: Admn 9 May 2003

Notices had been issued by the defendant local planning authority under section 11 of the 1995 Act.
Held: The notices had to be quashed for several reasons. The court considered whether there was a deemed consent: ‘It seems to me that, as things stand, it is necessary to consider in relation to any particular site whether the provision of illumination does amount to a substantial alteration in the manner of the use of the site. It may or it may not, and that will depend upon the effect of the illumination in any particular case.
It is to be remembered that the approach under the Act, and under the Regulations, is that powers should be exercised only in the interests of amenity and public safety. If there is a deemed consent to an advertisement, it seems to me that it is relevant to consider, as things stand, whether the illumination does have an effect on amenity or does create a danger. If it does not in any way, it is difficult to see how it could properly be regarded within the context of the approach to construction that should be adopted of these Regulations as a substantial alteration.
It is pertinent in my judgment to have regard to the purpose behind the need for control, which is to further the interests of amenity and to avoid any danger. It may well be thought by Lambeth, and it may be perfectly reasonable so to believe, that the advertisements, even as they are, are contrary to amenity. That is a matter which may have to be considered in the future. But as the matter stands under the Regulations, there is nothing positive that could be done unless it can be established within the terms of Regulation 8 that there is a substantial effect on amenity, or a danger resulting from this. It would be right in those circumstances to consider whether the illumination creates any additional adverse effect.’
References: [2003] EWHC 1224 (Admin), [2004] JPL 820
Links: Bailii
Judges: Collins J
Statutes: London Local Authorities Act 1995 11
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case is cited by:

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 24 September 2020; Ref: scu.185341

Rickless v United Artists Corporation: CA 1988

References: [1988] QB 40, [1987] 1 All ER 679, [1987] 2 WLR 945
Coram: Hobhouse J, Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson V-C, Bingham LJ
Ratio: The Act created a private right to performers. Although it might appear to provide criminal sanctions only, performers had the right to give or withhold consent to the use of their performances and to enforce that right by action in the civil courts. This statutory right was not purely personal, but survived the death of the performer and vested in his or her personal representatives, so that in the absence of consent of a performer or his or her personal representatives, there was an actionable breach. A feature film (Trail of the Pink Panther – ‘Trail’) starring the late Peter Sellers had been made by use of cutting floor clips from previous films made with his consent. In two films, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Revenge of the Pink Panther his consent extended to the use in this way of the cutting floor clips, and ordered the producer companies to account for percentages of the gross receipts of Trail as sums derived from Strikes and Revenge. In the case of three films where there had been no consent, damages were awarded for breach, or inducing breach, of contract in the sum of $1,000,000.
Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson V-C observed that, while not decisive, it was generally easier to spell out civil liability where Parliament had expressly stated that an act was unlawful rather than merely classifying it as a criminal offence.
Statutes: Dramatic and Musical Performers Protection Act 1958 1
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Experience Hendrix LLC v PPX Enterprises Inc and Another CA (Bailii, [2003] EWCA Civ 323, Times 19-Apr-03, Gazette 05-Jun-03, [2003] 1 All ER (Comm) 830)
    The claimant had obtained an interim injunction against the defendant for copyright infringement, though it could show no losses. It now sought additionally damages. The defendant argued that it could not have both.
    Held: The case arose form . .

(This list may be incomplete)
Jurisdiction: England and Wales

Last Update: 13-Jul-18
Ref: 180883

Regina v Mentuck; 15 Nov 2001

References: [2001] 3 SCR 442, 2001 SCC 76
Links: anlii
Coram: McLachlin C.J. and L’Heureux-Dube, Gonthier, Iacobucci, Major, Bastarache, Binnie, Arbour and LeBel JJ.
Canlii Ratio Supreme Court of Canada – Courts – Supreme Court of Canada – Jurisdiction – Publication bans – Criminal proceedings – Trial judge granting one-year ban as to identity of undercover police officers and refusing ban as to operational methods used in investigating accused – Whether Supreme Court of Canada has jurisdiction to hear Crown appeal from trial judge’s order – Supreme Court Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. S-26, s. 40(1), (3).
Criminal law – Publication bans – Appropriate scope of publication ban – Undercover police investigation – Crown seeking publication ban protecting identity of police officers and operational methods used in investigating accused – Trial judge granting one-year ban as to identity of officers and refusing ban as to operational methods – Whether trial judge erred in ordering ban.
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – A -v- British Broadcasting Corporation (Scotland) SC ([2015] 1 AC 588, 2014 SC (UKSC) 151, 2014 SCLR 593, Bailii, [2014] UKSC 25, [2014] 2 All ER 1037, 2014 GWD 15-266, [2014] WLR(D) 196, [2014] 2 WLR 1243, [2014] EMLR 25, 2014 SLT 613, WLRD, Bailii Summary, UKSC 2013/0159, SC Summary, SC)
    The BBC challenged an order made by the Court of Session in judicial review proceedings, permitting the applicant review to delete his name and address and substituting letters of the alphabet, in the exercise (or, as the BBC argues, purported . .

(This list may be incomplete)

Last Update: 17-May-16
Ref: 564189

Telefonica Europe Plc and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Revenue and Customs; UTTC 15 Apr 2016

References: [2016] UKUT 173 (TCC)
Links: Bailii
UTTC Ratio JUDICIAL REVIEW – determining place of effective use and enjoyment of telecommunications services – whether methodology for apportioning charge between EU and non-EU services based on usage is unlawful – whether claimants had legitimate expectation derived from correspondence with HMRC that claimants could continue to use methodology based on revenues until change in law or claimant’s business – whether HMRC had duty to consult claimants before requiring them to apply a new methodology – whether HMRC consulted claimants adequately

Last Update: 28-Apr-16
Ref: 562437

Re C (A Child); FC 29 Sep 2015

References: [2015] EWFC 79
Links: Bailii
Coram: Sir James Munby P FD
There had been care proceedings as to C. The mother was treated by a psychiatrist, X, and an associate Y. They also prepared expert reports. M formally complained about X, and the charges having been dismissed, the doctors now sought disclosure of further medical recods from the care proceedings. His medical reputation had been severely damaged by reporting of the complaints.
This case cites:

  • Cited – Tournier -v- National Provincial & Union Bank of England CA ([1924] 1 KB 461, [1923] All ER Rep 550, 130 LT 682)
    The court considered the duty of confidentiality owed by a banker to his client. Bankes LJ said: ‘At the present day I think it may be asserted with confidence that the duty is a legal one arising out of contract, and that the duty is not absolute . .
  • Cited – W -v- Egdell CA (Bailii, [1989] EWCA Civ 13, [1990] Ch 359)
    Bingham LJ said: ‘It has never been doubted that the circumstances here were such as to impose on Dr Egdell a duty of confidence owed to W. He could not lawfully sell the contents of his report to a newspaper . . Nor could he, without a breach of . .

Last Update: 07-Oct-15 Ref: 552792

London Borough of Barnet v X and Another; FC 18 Apr 2006

References: [2006] 2 FLR 998, [2006] EWCC 1 (Fam)
Links: Bailii
Coram: Munby J
Barnet County Court – Munby J considered the publication of children proceedings: ‘ In my view the public generally, and not just the professional readers of law reports or similar publications, have a legitimate – indeed a compelling – interest in knowing how the family courts exercise their care jurisdiction. Moreover, if leave is confined in practice to those cases which are, for some reason, thought to be worthy of reporting in a law report, the sample of cases which will ever come to public attention is not merely very small but also very unrepresentative.
My own view, and I make no bones about this, is that, subject of course to appropriate anonymisation, the presumption ought to be that leave should be given to publish any judgment in any care case, irrespective of whether the judgment has any particular interest for law reporters, lawyers or other professionals. It should not be necessary to show that there is some particular reason to justify why leave should be given in the particular case, let alone any need to justify leave on the basis that the judgment deals with some supposedly interesting point of law, practice or principle. For my own part, I should have thought that the proper approach ought to be the other way round. It is not so much for those who seek leave to publish an anonymised judgment to justify their request; surely it is for those who resist such leave to demonstrate some good reason why the judgment should not be published even in a suitably anonymised form.’
This case cites:

  • Cited – In re S (a Child) (Identification: Restrictions on Publication) HL (House of Lords, [2004] UKHL 47, Bailii, Times 29-Oct-04, [2005] 1 FLR 591, [2005] 1 AC 593, 17 BHRC 646, [2004] 4 All ER 683, [2005] Crim LR 310, [2004] 3 FCR 407, [2005] HRLR 5, [2004] 3 WLR 1129, [2005] EMLR 11, [2005] UKHRR 129, [2005] EMLR 2)
    The claimant child’s mother was to be tried for the murder of his brother by poisoning with salt. It was feared that the publicity which would normally attend a trial, would be damaging to S, and an application was made for reporting restrictions to . .

This case is cited by:

  • Cited – H -v- A (No2) FD (Bailii, [2015] EWHC 2630 (Fam))
    The court had previously published and then withdrawn its judgment after third parties had been able to identify those involved by pulling together media and internet reports with the judgment.
    Held: The court identified: ‘ the risk of so . .

Last Update: 29-Sep-15 Ref: 552788

MGN Ltd v Attard; 19 Oct 2001

References: Unreported, 19 October 2001
Coram: Connell J
Complaint was made about the publication of photographs of the survivor of conjoined twins who was only one year old. The photographs were taken in a street in Malta but followed the earlier publication of photographs and press articles based on interviews which the child’s parents gave in order to raise money for her care.
Held: The photograph constituted at most a minimal breach of the right to privacy given the innocuous nature of the photographs and the fact that they would not enable the reader to make a subsequent identification of the child. The court doubted whether Article. 8 was engaged at all given the public nature of the area where they were taken.
Statutes: European Convention on Human Rights 8
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Murray -v- Express Newspapers Plc and Another ChD (Bailii, [2007] EWHC 1908 (Ch), Times 04-Oct-07, [2008] 1 WLR 2846)
    The claimant, now aged four and the son of a famous author, was photographed by use of a long lens, but in a public street. He now sought removal of the photograph from the defendant’s catalogue, and damages for breach of confidence.
    Held: The . .
  • Cited – Murray -v- Big Pictures (UK) Ltd; Murray -v- Express Newspapers CA (Bailii, [2008] EWCA Civ 446, [2008] 3 WLR 1360, [2008] HRLR 33, [2008] UKHRR 736, [2008] 2 FLR 599, [2008] 3 FCR 661, [2008] ECDR 12, [2008] EMLR 1, [2008] Fam Law 732, [2009] Ch 481)
    The claimant, a famous writer, complained on behalf of her infant son that he had been photographed in a public street with her, and that the photograph had later been published in a national newspaper. She appealed an order striking out her claim . .

Sports and General Press Agency v ‘Our Dogs’ Publishing Co: CA 1917

References: [1917] KB 125 CA
The plaintiff had sold to the Press photographic rights to a dog show. An independent photographer took pictures and sold them to the defendant, who published them. The plaintiff sought to restrain further publication.
Held: An injunction was refused on the ground that the dog show organisers and the plaintiff could, by contract, have laid down, but had failed to lay down, conditions of entry or as to banning the use of unauthorised cameras.
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Douglas etc -v- Hello! Ltd etc ChD (Bailii, [2003] EWHC 786 (Ch), Times 21-Apr-03, [2003] 3 All ER 996, [2003] EMLR 31)
    The claimants were to be married. They sold the rights to publish photographs of their wedding, but various of the defendants took and published unauthorised pictures.
    Held: The claimants had gone to lengths to ensure the commercial value of . .

Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority v. Canadian Federation of Students – British Columbia Component; 10 Jul 2009

References: [2009] 2 SCR 295, 309 DLR (4th) 277, 2009 SCC 31, [2009] 8 WWR 385, 272 BCAC 29, 389 NR 98, 93 BCLR (4th) 1, EYB 2009-161351, JE 2009-1320, [2009] SCJ No 31 (QL), 179 ACWS (3d) 98, 192 CRR (2d) 336
Links: Canlii
Coram: McLachlin CJ and Bastarache,* Binnie, LeBel, Deschamps, Fish, Abella, Charron and Rothstein JJ
Canlii Supreme Court of Canada – Constitutional law – Charter of Rights – Application of Charter – Transit authorities’ advertising policies permitting commercial but not political advertising on public transit vehicles – Actions brought alleging that transit authorities’ policies violated freedom of expression – Whether entities which operate public transit systems ‘government’ within meaning of s. 32 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Constitutional law – Charter of Rights – Freedom of expression – Advertisements on buses – Transit authorities’ advertising policies permitting commercial but not political advertising on public transit vehicles – Whether advertising policies infringing freedom of expression – If so, whether infringement can be justified – Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ss. 1, 2(b).
Constitutional law – Charter of Rights – Reasonable limits prescribed by law – Transit authorities’ advertising policies permitting commercial but not political advertising on public transit vehicles – Policies infringing freedom of expression -Whether policies are ‘law’ within meaning of s. 1 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Constitutional law – Charter of Rights – Remedy – Transit authorities’ advertising policies permitting commercial but not political advertising on public transit vehicles – Policies unjustifiably infringing freedom of expression – Declaration that policies are of ‘no force or effect’ sought – Whether declaration ought to be based on s. 52 of Constitution Act, 1982 or s. 24(1) of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Whether policies are ‘law’ within meaning of s. 52 of Constitution Act, 1982.

Gregory v Duke Of Brunswick and Vallance; 21 Jun 1843

References: [1843] EngR 859, (1843) 1 Car & K 24, (1843) 174 ER 696
Links: Commonlii
The public, who go to a theatre, have a right to express thelr free and unbiassed opinions of the merits of the performers who appear upon the stage, but parties have no right to go to a theatre, by a preconcerted plan to make such a noise that an actor, without any judgment being formed of his performance, should be driven from the stage, and if two persons are shewn to have laid a preconcerted plan to deprive a person who comes out as an actor of the benefits which he expected to result from his appearance on the stage, they are liable in an action for a conspiracy. In an action for a, conspiracy to hiss an actor, the defendants cannot, under the genera1 issue, give in evidence libels published by the plaintiff, with a view of shewing that the plaintiff was hissed on account of those libels, and not by reason of any conspiracy of the defendants. In an action for a conspiracy, the defendants pleaded the general issue, arid also a special plea of justification, which plea was demurred to, and held bad by the Court, who gave judgment on it for the plaintiff and the award of venire was as well to try the issue joined ‘as, to inquire what damages the said plaintiff hath sustained on occasion of the premises whereof the Court hath given judgment for the said plaintiff’ Held, that on the trial at Nisi Prius, the defendant’s counsel, in addressing the jury, had a right to refer to the allegatlons contained in the special plea, and to comment upon them.
Last Update: 17-Feb-16 Ref: 306553