In R (on the application of Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Others) v Secretary of State and others [2017] EWHC 2309 (Admin) NGOs challenged recent Government amendments to the costs-capping regime for environmental disputes. The High Court considered whether allowing the variation of costs caps in environmental disputes would deter meritorious claims and … Read more

In R (Dean) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2017] EWHC 1998 (Admin) (Holgate J) the Administrative Court had to consider whether a licence was a statutory instrument governed by public law or a contract subject to ordinary contractual law principles, for the purposes of establishing whether a deed of variation was … Read more

In R (on the application of UK Power Networks (Operations) Ltd) v Gas and Electricity Markets Authority[2017] EWHC 1175 (Admin), the Claimant, UK Power Networks (Operations) Limited (“UKPN”) challenged the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority’s (“GEMA”) decision to require it to pay Willmott Dixon Construction Limited (“Willmott Dixon”) interest on advance payments made for electricity connection … Read more

In R (Newby Foods Limited) v the Food Standards Agency [2017] EWCA Civ 400 the Court of Appeal was tasked with considering the circumstances when the English court is free to depart from conclusions reached by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) on a reference made to it by that court in the same … Read more

In the decision of Karen Louise Oakley v South Cambridgeshire District Council [2017] EWCA Civ 471, the Court of Appeal re-examined the question of whether planning authorities are under a common law duty to provide reasons. In the particular circumstances of the case, the Court of Appeal decided that the respondent planning authority was in breach of … Read more

Following the announcement of the UK general election, the status of the Human Rights Act 1998 (the “Act”) has again come into focus. The Conservatives’ manifesto reveals that plans to repeal and replace the Act with a domestic ‘Bill of Rights’ will be placed on hold “while the process of Brexit is underway”. Their manifesto also confirms that … Read more

In Global Gaming Ventures (Southampton) Limited v (1) Southampton City Council (2) Aspers Universal Limited (Interested Party) [2017] EWHC 165 (Admin), the Administrative Court (Baker J) held that the public authority’s advisory panel and licensing committee (the “Panel”) did not have to specify every last detail of the evidence it considered when granting a licence to the … Read more

On 28 February 2017, changes to the Civil Procedure Rules (the “CPR”) relating to environmental, or Aarhus Convention (“Convention”) claims came into effect. The changes give judges in environmental judicial review claims and statutory challenges the ability to vary the previously fixed costs caps or remove them altogether. These changes will allow judges to award costs … Read more