A government minister had decided to confirm a draft new town order following a public local inquiry. One of the grounds on which the decision was challenged was that the minister could not consider the report and the objections without a pre-disposition to favour the confirmation of the draft order, since it took forward a government policy to which he was necessarily committed.
Held: The minister’s decision-making function was not of a judicial or quasi-judicial character: the purpose of the report was to provide him with information, and the only question was whether he had genuinely considered the report and the objections when they were submitted to him. There is no universal rule requiring that decision-makers must possess the independence and impartiality required of a court or tribunal: it is necessary to take account of the constitutional position of the decision-maker, and of the nature of the decision.
Lord Thankerton
[1947] UKHL 3, [1948] AC 87, (1947) 176 LT 312, [1947] 2 All ER 289
Bailii
New Towns Act 1946
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – HS2 Action Alliance Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for Transport and Another SC 22-Jan-2014
The government planned to promote a large scale rail development (HS2), announcing this in a command paper. The main issues, in summary, were, first, whether it should have been preceded by strategic environmental assessment, under the relevant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Planning, Constitutional
Leading Case
Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.248506
