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Public law: putting policy into practice

01 October 2021 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7950 / Categories: Features , Public
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Nicholas Dobson reports on the lawfulness of public authority policies & guidance
  • Guidance in the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme was lawful when it required the police to consider seeking representations from the subject if the application for disclosure raised relevant concerns (including where the subject has child sex offence convictions).

As the early 17th century proverb advises, honesty is the best policy. Marx would agree, asserting that: ‘The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing’. However, this being Groucho and not Karl, he added: ‘If you can fake that, you’ve got it made’.

But what is a policy in terms of government and other public authorities? The Oxford English Dictionary takes us into the ballpark, giving the usual sense as including: ‘A principle or course of action adopted or proposed as desirable, advantageous, or expedient; esp. one formally advocated by a government, political party, etc.’

The Supreme Court recently gave public authority policies some heavy-duty attention when considering the standards applicable by courts when judicially reviewing the contents

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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