Legal Challenges – What are the implications of the Greenpeace case? …… and will it affect less high-profile consultations?

Make no mistake; this High Court judgment will have a major impact upon the conduct of public debate in the United Kingdom.

It’s not that this is the first time that the Courts have intervened when public consultation has been flawed – there have been previous cases – but until now, these were thought to be idiosyncratic situations from which only limited conclusions could be drawn. Or else, such as the important case last November, where the Consumer Council in Northern Ireland succeeded against the Northern Ireland Office over Water Charges, they received little publicity, and were largely unknown outside specialist legal circles.

But this time, Mr Justice Sullivan’s quashing order became headline news, and although Greenpeace naturally want this to be a story about nuclear power, we think the implications for public bodies everywhere are immense; as a story for consultation professionals, they don’t come any bigger!