Held to account: Delegating powers

In brief

• ‘Carltona principle’: the implied delegation of a decision-making power to a subordinate.
• Gerry Adams: subject to an interim custody order, but was his detention unlawful at the relevant time?
• The question for the Supreme Court: whether the making of the ICO had required the personal consideration of the secretary of state at the time or whether the Carltona principle operated to permit the making of an order by a minister of state?

In Carltona Ltd v Works Commissioners [1943] 2 All ER 560, the Court of Appeal established a principle relating to the implied delegation of a decision-making power to a subordinate which has subsequently become known as the ‘Carltona principle’. Thus, as Lord Greene MR explained in Carltona itself:

‘In the administration of government in this country the functions which are given to ministers (and constitutionally properly given to ministers because they are constitutionally responsible) are functions so