Local government
Budgets, service redesign, local plans and reorganisation, among the most litigated consultations in the country, where the failure is often the timing, not the topic.
NHS & health
Service change and reconfiguration under the duty to involve, the substantial-variation test and the scrutiny referral power.
Transport & infrastructure
From nationally significant projects to local traffic schemes, where reform is expected to remove the duty to consult, but not the exposure.
Regulators & ALBs
Price controls, licences and codes, read forensically by expert respondents building the record for an appeal.
Emergency services
Fire, police and ambulance changes the public feels as safety, where acting fast is allowed but going quiet afterwards is what gets challenged.
Central government
Departments and arm’s-length bodies consulting on national policy, where it is the process, not the policy, that gets judged.
Different duties, the same four questions.
Whatever statute you consult under, a challenge almost always comes back to the Gunning Principles and to the record you kept. Our case law catalogue holds every reported judgment that shapes this, and the pattern in it is consistent.
Timing and information account for the majority. Both are decided long before a document is published.
The same three ways in, whatever the sector
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Tell us about your consultation and we will point you to the right training and the right level of assurance.