Standing in judicial review proceedings—no ‘carte blanche’ for public interest groups

Article summary

Public Law analysis: On 15 February 2022, the High Court handed down judgment in a judicial review claim brought by two public interest groups, the Good Law Project (GLP) and the Runnymede Trust, against an alleged government policy or practice of making appointments to coronavirus (COVID-19) taskforces without open competition. The claimants argued this gave rise to discrimination. The court did not consider that the alleged policy existed and the claim failed on grounds 1 (indirect discrimination) and 3 (apparent bias). The court nonetheless found that the specific appointments identified by the claimants (Baroness Harding as Interim Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection in May 2020 and Mr Coupe as Director of Testing for NHS Test and Trace in August 2020) breached the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which requires public authorities to take reasonable steps to enquire about the potential impact of a proposed decision or policy on people with protected characteristics (as identified in the Equality...