Latest Cases

Sentence – Mandatory life sentence. The offender, when aged 13, was involved with four others in the killing of a 16-year-old victim. The present proceedings concerned the review of the minimum term. The Administrative Court held that the reports on the offender were favourable and he had clearly made progress. However, that progress was no greater than would have been hoped. It was clear from the reports that he had not qualified at present for any tariff reduction. 

Medical practitioner – Professional conduct committee. The appellant appealed against the decision of the Fitness to Practise Panel (the FPP) of the respondent General Medical Council in her absence, finding misconduct and deciding to erase her from the register. The Administrative Court, in allowing the appeal held that the FPP ought to have decided to proceed to hear the witnesses, but only to decide the facts and to seek to notify the appellant, with a view to her attending on the issue of dishonesty. It should have considered, before imposing any sanction whether attempts should have been made to contact the appellant to enable her to put forward any mitigation. 

Tort – Harassment. The second claimant was the wife of the first claimant. The husband had been subjected to a course of harassment by the first defendant in respect of their business dealings. The husband's claim for harassment was allowed, but the wife's was not because, while she had been alarmed and upset, she had not been the target of the conduct. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the ability to bring a harassment claim extended beyond the targeted individual only to those other persons who were foreseeably, and directly, harmed by the course of targeted conduct of which complaint was made, to the extent that they could properly be described as victims of it. On that basis, the wife had established a cause of action for the statutory tort of harassment and she was awarded damages of £6,000. 

European Union – Value added tax. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 132(1)(g) of Council Directive (EC) 2006/112 (on the common system of value added tax) should be interpreted as meaning that neither state-examined care workers who provided their services directly to persons in need of care nor a temporary-work agency which supplied such workers to establishments recognised as being devoted to social wellbeing came within the scope of 'bodies recognised as being devoted to social wellbeing' contained in that provision. 

Family proceedings – Costs. Private law family proceedings were taking place in which the sperm donor father, who was registered on the birth certificate, sought contact with the child after the relationship between him and the two parents had broken down. The child had been born into a relationship between two women. In the proceedings, the child was in receipt of legal aid funding, but none of the adults was. The two women sought a costs allowance to be paid by the father. The Family Division, having considered the circumstances of the parties, ordered that the father pay 80% of the claims of each of the women and 80% of all future professional costs in respect of therapeutic work. The costs of expert evidence were to be paid for by the child, charged to his legal aid certificate. 

Road traffic – Regulation of traffic. The defendant local authority made an experimental traffic order and subsequently made it permanent (the RTO). The claimant, as a representative of a group opposed to the change, applied, under para 35 of Sch 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, for an order quashing the RTO. The Administrative Court, in allowing the application, held that there had been a clear breach of the obligation to hold a public inquiry and, as a result, a failure to comply with a relevant requirement in force before the RTO could be made. The omission had not been an inconsequential failure, as it had created obvious prejudice for the claimant's group. 

Sentence – Imprisonment. The Courts Martial Appeal Court held that a sentence imposed by the Court Martial of nine months' detention for two counts of assault by penetration had been unduly lenient. However, in the circumstances, the court declined to increase the offender's sentence. 

Immigration – Asylum seeker. The claimant Angolan national sought judicial review of the defendant local authority's assessment of her age as over 18 years. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the application, held that the claimant had not been truthful about her age and the age assessment interview had been carried out in a completely fair manner. Accordingly, the claimant had been well over 18 years old when she had entered the United Kingdom and she was presently 22 years old. 

Immigration – Education. The claimant college sought judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's withdrawal of its Tier-4 sponsor licence. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the application, held that the Secretary of State had been entitled to be suspicious about the robustness of the claimant's compliance with its duty to assess the English language ability of its students. She had also been entitled to conclude that the claimant had posed a serious risk to immigration control. 

Human rights – Discrimination. The claimant Irish travellers sought a declaration that s 33(2) of the Land Compensation Act 1973, which precluded the making of a home loss payment to a caravan dweller unless no suitable alternative site was available on reasonable terms, was incompatible with art 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, read in conjunction with art 8 of the Convention or art 1 of the First Protocol to the Convention, or both. The Planning Court, in dismissing the application, having properly construed s 33(2) of the Act, held that the analogy the claimants sought to draw between their situation, and that of persons resident in bricks and mortar accommodation was plainly false.