L. F. v The United Kingdom

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on L. F. v The United Kingdom

European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section) (App. No. 19839/21) [2022] ECHR 19839/21, 16 June 2022

This was an appeal to the ECtHR from the decision of the Supreme Court in R (Z & Anor) v Hackney LBC & Anor [2020] UKSC 40 (see previous post). The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the application to the Court as inadmissible.  The Applicant complained that the preferential treatment of members of the Orthodox Jewish Community (“OJC” below) breached her Article 8 and 14 ECHR rights. The Court accepted that Article 8 was engaged for the purposes of Article 14 but found that the preferential treatment in issue was proportionate and lawful. (References to LBH and AIHA below are to the London Borough of Hackney and the Orthodox Jewish housing association which managed the accommodation whose tenancy criteria Z challenged.) According to the Court: Continue reading →

MD & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on MD & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Court of Appeal: Underhill VP, Asplin and Simler LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 336, 16 March 2022

The Court of Appeal allowed the respondent’s appeal from the decision of Kerr J (see previous post). Continue reading →

R (CN) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on R (CN) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Court of Appeal: Sir Geoffrey Vos MR, King and Dingemans LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 86, 4 February 2022

The claimant sought to challenge the exclusion from an infected blood compensation scheme of people who contracted hepatitis B (HBV). He had contracted HBV from unscreened blood in 1989 but HBV was excluded from the scheme because blood donors had been screened for HBV since 1972. The claimant sought to rely on Articles 8 and 14 and A1P1 ECHR and on s15 EqA (disability discrimination). His claim failed and the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in R (SC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Ors [2021] UKSC 26,  (see previous post) and ruling that any differential treatment of similarly situated individuals was justifiable given the intensity of review appropriate to judgments of social and economic policy notwithstanding the fact that disability discrimination was alleged. Continue reading →

R (Good Law Project Ltd & Anor) v Prime Minister & Anor

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on R (Good Law Project Ltd & Anor) v Prime Minister & Anor

Queen’s Bench Division (Divisional Court): Singh LJ and Swift J, [2022] EWHC 298 (Admin),15 February 2022

This decision is most interesting for its approach to standing, in particular that the Good Law Project’s roving approach to JR challenges did not provide it with standing for such challenges. The Court also rejected the claim of the Runnymeade Trust, which it accepted did have standing on a PSED challenge, to standing to challenge as indirectly discriminatory  the many informal appointments to positions of responsibility which characterised the approach of the UK Government’s approach under the pandemic. Such claims were in the Divisional Court’s view properly brought by individual litigants who sought to challenge their own exclusion from consideration rather than by either claimant, and were not the proper subject of judicial review. Having decided that the Runnymede Trust did have standing to challenge the defendant’s compliance with the PSED the court  concluded that the duty had been breached in relation to two of the appointments. Continue reading →

For Women Scotland Limited v (1) The Lord Advocate, (2) The Scottish Ministers

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on For Women Scotland Limited v (1) The Lord Advocate, (2) The Scottish Ministers

Court of Session (Inner House): Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Malcolm, Lord Pentland, [2022] CSIH 4, 18 February 2022

This was a challenge brought by way of judicial review to the Scottish Government’s decision by way of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 to implement certain positive action measures which treated as a “woman” a “person [who] is living as a woman and is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of becoming female.” Continue reading →

Warburton v Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on Warburton v Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police

EAT; Griffiths J, [2022] EAT 42, 14 March 2022

The EAT ruled that a tribunal had applied the wrong approach to victimisation when it dismissed the claimant’s complaint against the respondent. Continue reading →

Biden v Waverley Borough Council

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on Biden v Waverley Borough Council

Court of Appeal: Macur, Asplin and Coulson LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 442, 1 April 2022

The Court of Appeal dismissed the claimant’s appeal against the dismissal of her claim that the respondent authority had breached the PSED by failing to make the inquiries the claimant deemed necessary on matters relating to the incidence of gender reassignment hate crime in the area of the accommodation offered to the claimant with the assistance of  an LGBT liaison officer, rather than a police support community officer. Continue reading →

Benkharbouche and Janah v United Kingdom

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on Benkharbouche and Janah v United Kingdom

ECtHR, App. Nos. 19059/18 and 19725/18, [2022] ECHR 19059/18, [2022] ECHR 19725/18

The ECtHR accepted the UK Government’s concessions that it had breached the Article 6 and 14 rights of the second claimant, a domestic worker whose claims against the State of Libya had been blocked by the State Immunity Act. Continue reading →

R (Sheakh) v Lambeth London Borough Council

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on R (Sheakh) v Lambeth London Borough Council

Court of Appeal; Sir Keith Lindblom, Males and Elisabeth Laing LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 457, 5 April 2022

The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal, based on the PSED, from the order of Kerr LJ refusing the claimant’s application for statutory and judicial review of experimental traffic orders (ETOs) creating Low Traffic Neighbourhoods which had been made by the respondent. Continue reading →

Ali v Heathrow Express Operating Company Ltd & Anor

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on Ali v Heathrow Express Operating Company Ltd & Anor

EAT, Judge Auerbach, Mr D Bleiman and Miss S Wilson CBE, [2022] EAT 54, 7 April 2022

This decision is a reminder that, where unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic is not intended to offend, intimidate, etc, an objective test applies to the question whether conduct amounts to harassment. Continue reading →