The claimants sought judicial review of the police guidelines for practice after a police shooting, saying that it left too much room for police officers to confer before preparing statements.
Held: The request was refused. The policy had moved on, and whlst the differences between policies did exist, they were not great. There would always and necessarily be real practical limits given the practical requirements in such situations: ‘Overall, the 2014 guidance leaves open a greater risk of collusion than would be left open by the IPCC draft guidance, thereby creating a greater risk that an investigation carried out in accordance with the guidance would fail to meet the procedural requirements of article 2. But in the light of the safeguards that the guidance does provide, and bearing in mind that the adequacy of an investigation for the purposes of article 2 would have to be assessed by reference to all the features of that investigation, I take the view that the risk of breach of article 2 to which the guidance itself gives rise is a relatively low one. I do not consider it to be an unacceptable risk, such as would justify a finding that the guidance itself was unlawful.’
Moore-Bick, Richards, Tomlinson LJJ
[2014] EWCA Civ 1635
Bailii
England and Wales
Police
Updated: 24 December 2021; Ref: scu.540487