Local authority – Statutory powers. The Queen's Bench Division awarded the claimant parents damages of £10,000 each, in circumstances where, while the initial removal of their children from their home had been lawful, and a proportionate and necessary response to the need to safeguard them from harm, the actions of the defendant local authority in retaining the children away from their parents after the expiry of a police protection order had been unlawful and, therefore, the interference with the parents' rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had also been unlawful.