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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…