It appears that the Government has climbed down, in part, from some of its controversial secret justice proposals. According to the Telegraph, the Justice and Security Bill, which will be published this week, will include a provision whereby judges, not the Government, has the final say on whether a Closed Material Procedure (CMP) is used. [...]
Archive for the ‘Freedom of Information’ Category
A secret justice climb down? Perhaps not
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Freedom of Information, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism on May 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
“Thinking the unthinkable”? Freedom of information and the NHS Risk Register – Robin Hopkins
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Freedom of Information, Medical, Politics / Public Order, tagged NHS Risk Register on April 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Department of Health v IC, Healey and Cecil(EA/2011/0286 & EA/2011/0287) - Read Decision In a recent post, Panopticon brought you, hot-off-the-press, the Tribunal’s decision in the much-publicised case involving publication, under Freedom of Information Law, of the NHS Risk Register. Somewhat less hot-off-the-press are my observations. This is a very important decision, both for its engagement [...]
Security bodies, private emails: parallels between the UK and US – Robin Hopkins
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Freedom of Information, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged extraordinary rendition, freedom of information on April 12, 2012 |
Today was one of striking parallels between the USA and the UK in terms of litigation concerned with access to information. APPGER and security bodies First, one of The Independent‘s main stories this morning concerned a case brought in the US by the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition (APPGER). Readers will recall that [...]
Common-law open justice lets in the light; Strasbourg not the key
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case law, Criminal, Freedom of Information, International, Media on April 10, 2012 | 4 Comments »
R (o.t.a Guardian Newspapers) v. City of Westminster Magistrates Court, USA as Interested Party, 3 April 2012, Court of Appeal: read judgment No, not a case about secret trials, but about the way in which newspapers can get hold of court papers in open oral hearings. And, as we shall see, it led to a [...]
The right to receive information; journalists and inquiries
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Freedom of Information, In the news on March 21, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Kennedy v. Charity Commission et al, Court of Appeal, 20 March 2012, read judgment Tangled web, this one, but an important one. Many will remember George Galloway’s Mariam Appeal launched in response to sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1998, and the famous picture of GG with Saddam Hussein. Well, the Appeal was then inquired into [...]
Justice wide shut
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Damages, Freedom of Information, In the news, Judges and Juries, Terrorism, tagged Justice and Security Green Paper on March 1, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Yesterday I spoke at Justice Wide Open, an excellent conference organised by Judith Townend. I mounted my usual open justice hobby horses (to coin a topical phrase) on how to make the justice system more accessible to the public, including a moan about human rights reporting. Someone told me during the break that according to [...]
Does a risk of an explosion engage Article 8?
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Environment, European, Freedom of Information, In the news on February 15, 2012 |
Hardy & Maile v. United Kingdom, ECtHR, 14 February 2012 read judgment This Strasbourg decision is the end of a long saga. Our applicants Hardy and Maile lived near proposed Liquified Natural Gas terminals at Milford Haven. In 2003 and 2004, an oil refiner obtained various consents to enable the LNG to be imported, and the applicants challenged [...]
Supreme Court rules BBC need not reveal internal Israel-Palestine coverage report
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Freedom of Information, Media, tagged Balen Report, Freedom of Information Act 2000, israeli palestinian conflict, Sugar v BBC on February 15, 2012 |
Sugar (Deceased) (Represented by Fiona Paveley) (Appellant) v British Broadcasting Corporation (Respondent) [2012] UKSC 4 – Read judgment / press summary The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that an internal BBC report into its coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict was “information held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature” and therefore need not be [...]
More secret trials? No thanks
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Costs and Procedure, Freedom of Information, In the news, Inquests and Inquiries, Judges and Juries, Police, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged civil proceedings, consultation responses, Justice and Security Green Paper, terrorism legislation on January 31, 2012 | 3 Comments »
A child learns early that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it. Thankfully that principle does not apply to Government consultations and this is aptly demonstrated by a group of responses to the consultation into whether “closed material” (secret evidence) procedures should be extended to civil trials. Of the responses that [...]
R (Associated Newspapers) v Lord Justice Leveson: Challenge to Anonymity Ruling Dismissed
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Freedom of Information, Inquests and Inquiries, Media, tagged associated newspapers on January 22, 2012 |
Associated Newspapers Ltd, R (on the application of) v Rt Hon Lord Justice Leveson [2012] EWHC 57 – Read judgment On Friday 20 January 2012 the Administrative Court dismissed the second application for judicial review of the Leveson Inquiry. The Court dismissed an application by Associated Newspapers (supported by the Daily Telegraph) to quash the [...]
Freedom of information – no longer the Cinderella of rights
Posted in Animals, Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Information, In the news, tagged climate change, freedom of information, Freedom of Information Act 2000, Newcastle university on November 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
BUAV v Information Commissioner and Newcastle University (EA/2010/0064) – read judgment There is no doubt that freedom of expression plays a starring role in the human rights fairy tale. While she is carried aloft on the soaring rhetoric of citizens’ rights from the newsrooms to protesters’ rallies, the right to information, her shy stepsister, is [...]
Climate change: No right to know effect of new EU rules
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Environment, European, Freedom of Information, Politics / Public Order on November 16, 2011 |
Sinclair v Information Commissioner and Department of Energy and Climate Change EA/2011/0052 (08 November 2011) – Read ruling The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”) did not require the Department of Energy and Climate Change (“DECC”) to disclose information concerning the government’s analysis of the potential cost to the UK of strengthened climate change commitments by [...]
Leveson goes live
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Freedom of Information, In the news, Media, Technology, tagged Leveson Inquiry on November 14, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Updated |Today marks a minor landmark for open justice. For the first time, a public inquiry is being shown live over the internet. The Leveson Inquiry into Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press has taken over Court 73 in the Royal Courts of Justice, so when Counsel to the Inquiry Robert Jay QC begins [...]
Prince Charles, oysters and environmental information
Posted in Case comments, Environment, European, Freedom of Information, In the news, Public/Private on November 6, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Bruton v IC and The Duchy of Cornwall & The Attorney General to HRH the Prince of Wales (EA/2010/0182) 3 November 2011. This significant decision of the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) is well described on 11 KBW’s Panopticon blog. So just a few thoughts on a case which has the hallmarks of going to appeal. The underlying [...]





Anemometers and wind farms once more: PINS now win the day
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case law, Environment, European, Freedom of Information, In the news on May 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
DCLG v. Information Commissioner & WR [2012] UKUT I have previously posted on the decision leading to this successful appeal by the Planning Inspectorate, against an order that they produce their legal advice concerning a planning appeal. The decision of the First-Tier Tribunal in favour of disclosure was reversed by a strong Upper Tribunal, chaired [...]
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