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 (Efthimiou) v Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London

Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court, Cotter J, [2022] EWHC 1588 (Admin), 23 June 2022

This was a challenge brought under the EqA and the HRA to increases in the charges for use of Hampstead’s Ladies’ Pond. The claim was that the increased charges breached the defendant’s duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons under ss20, 21 & 29 EqA and indirect discrimination against disabled people contrary to s19 EqA and Article 14 ECHR read with Article 8 and/or Article 1 Protocol 1. Continue reading

R (Colchester) v Secretary of State for Education

Administrative Court: Clive Sheldon QC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, [2020] EWHC 3376 (Admin), 8 December 2020
This case concerned a renewed application for permission in a PSED challenge to the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019 and associated guidance, which impose obligations upon schools to provide mandatory relationships and health education to all children, this by contrast with sex education from which parents can chose to remove children. Continue reading