There are a range of circumstances where a consultation takes place but then it becomes necessary to repeat the task. A County Council consults on a reconfiguration of services and is subsequently challenged in the High Court. It loses and must then consider whether to repeat the exercise. An NHS Trust which has spent years attempting […]
Consultation – Is it OK to start all over again? Read More »
How seriously are we considering the VERY big issues? Three years ago – with the Referendum aftershocks still resounding, we speculated whether the BREXIT planning period would usher in a period of fundamental re-thinking about all those issues that might be affected by the decision to leave the UK. We wondered whether we would see
Finally…food for thought! Read More »
In a number of organisations, the days of turning up to a meeting to be greeted with a consultation document complete with options, a questionnaire and timetable (ambitious as it might be), are gone. The public expect a level of involvement early on and this can be a problem for some public bodies. When involvement
Are you getting the right people in the room? Read More »
Ministry refusal to disclose rejected by the Information Commissioner. Another story from the category marked ‘Surely this cannot have happened?’ On 8th May 2018, just three weeks before the Grenfell Towers Inquiry settled on its ‘list of issues to be investigated’ someone (we don’t know who) submitted an FOI request which has just been the
‘Vexatious’ bid to see consultee responses on Fire Safety Read More »
Over the last 10 years there have been several legal cases challenging the consideration of options by public bodies. In R (ex parte Bokrosova) v London Borough of Lambeth, the Council became concerned that three options could not be funded and eventually withdrew the unaffordable options whilst the consultation was still live. In R (ex
The rising fear about options appraisal Read More »
Are there signs that the NHS is learning how to defend challenges to the lawfulness of its service change consultations? Recent days have suggested that this may indeed be the case. Last week, campaigners seeking to overturn the decision to centralise some hospital services at Bournemouth failed at the Court of Appeal. Then this week
NHS learns to defend legal challenges to service transformations Read More »
How consultative a Prime Minister will Boris become? Are there clues in his previous record? In fact, there is one really big one …. Boris Johnson had expressed his view about Ken Livingstone’s proposed extension of the congestion charge. In his own words, “I will consult the residents in the (Congestion Charge) zone and on
Boris – comedian or chameleon? Read More »
This time last year, we had a rush of important Court judgments on the Law of Consultation. On one day alone, August 3rd, 2018 the results of three legal challenges were published, that proved highly significant in the development of the law, and in clarifying what public engagement professionals must do – and not do
Another Summer of consultation Court judgments? Read More »
When Buckinghamshire decided to close over half its children’s centres, campaigners went to the High Court to fight a Judicial Review. This week, they lost, and the Council won its case. Reading the judgment from R (ex parte L) v Buckinghamshire CC, however, one is struck by the way in which the Council structured its
When options are more apparent than real Read More »
It is not often that barristers hit the headlines as they argue a case in the High Court. But heads were turned this week by the words of Sir James Eadie QC, defending the Government in the action brought against it by those claiming that Special Educational Needs and Disability services (SEND) have been consciously under-funded.
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