Tag: Catherine Callaghan QC

R (Jwanczuk) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on R (Jwanczuk) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court, Kerr J, [2022] EWHC 2298 (Admin), 7 September 2022

The High Court ruled that the exclusion from entitlement to a bereavement support payment (‘BSP’) of the widower of a woman who had, by reason of disability, paid no national insurance contributions (because she was unable to work) breached Article 14 ECHR read with A1P1. In doing so the judge reached the same conclusion as Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal had in O’Donnell v. Department for Communities [2020] NICA 36. Continue reading →

R (Police Superintendents’ Association) v HM Treasury

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on R (Police Superintendents’ Association) v HM Treasury

Administrative Court: Heather Williams J, [2021] EWHC 3389 (Admin), 15 December 2021

This was a challenge to a decision to close legacy public service pension schemes, including police schemes, and to move all active members to reformed pension schemes. The High Court ruled that the decision was unlawful by reason of failures in the consultation process. In addition, and of more relevance to this blog, she ruled that the decision had been taken in breach of the PSED (s149 Equality Act 2010) because the decision was reached prior to the decision-maker having been provided with a draft of the relevant equality impact assessment or a summary of indirect sex discrimination and other equality-related concerns raised by consultees. As Williams J put it at §171: “the PSED is placed on the Minister personally and what matters is what he or she took into account and knew, not what his officials read or summarised or discussed. As I have indicated when setting out the legal principles, the duty must be fulfilled at a time when a particular policy is under consideration, rather than after it has been adopted. Accordingly, there was a breach of the PSED in this regard”.

 

Claimant: Andrew Sharland QC and Stephen Kosmin, instructed by Mariel Irvine Solicitors

Defendant and Interested Party: Catherine Callaghan QC , Raymond Hill and Imogen Proud, instructed by Government Legal Department