National Health Service

In September 2013, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and an NHS Trust decided to implement prior decisions, endorsed by the secretary of state for health to close the accident and emergency department of a hospital (the A&E) with effect from December 2013. The claimant local authority applied for judicial review, arguing among other things that the CCGs had created a substantive expectation, either as to the actual primary care services to be in place before closure or as to an identifiable level of such services, from which it would be an abuse of power for the CCGs to depart. 

In refusing permission to apply for judicial review, the court held that it was settled law that the initial burden lay on an applicant to prove the legitimacy of his expectation. That meant that, in a claim based on a promise, the claimant had to prove the promise, and that it