Hundreds of Institute members and supporters have heard me deliver ‘The Law of Consultation‘ training course in recent years. But not in Scotland!

Typically we review about 35 Judicial Reviews in the High Court of England, Wales and occasionally Northern Ireland – all those occasions where someone has sought to show that a public consultation was unlawful because it had been conducted unfairly.

Tomorrow, though, for the first time, and to an audience that includes Institute Associates from Belfast as well as from Scotland, we are delivering this unique Course in Edinburgh. It will feature a number of interesting cases from Scotland and from Northern Ireland. One is a legal challenge to a wind farm from the RSPB; another questioned the rights of Scottish Ministers to ‘call in’ a decision on school closures in the Isle of Lewis. Another concerned the withdrawal of homeopathy services by Lothian Health Board.

We will also focus on several cases from Northern Ireland. A few years ago, there was a challenge to the Government for not allowing enough time on the consultation on water charges. More recently a Court had to consider whether guarantees promised one school prejudiced the consultation on the potential closure of its neighbour.

In total tomorrow, we will consider about 50 cases from all the home countries and seek to discern the rules that govern how public consultations are viewed by Judges. It’s essential for public engagement professionals to appreciate all this, and it’s great that we can now start to bring this north of the border.