header-logo header-logo

Of busybodies & equalities

18 March 2022 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7971 / Categories: Features , Public , Covid-19
printer mail-detail
75152
Nicholas Dobson reviews the recent challenge to the appointment of Dido Harding as chair of Test & Trace
  • Since Good Law Project had no standing to bring Equality Act 2010 and apparent bias claims against the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (SoS), its claim entirely failed.
  • The Runnymede Trust was granted a declaration that the SoS failed to comply with the public sector equality duty in making certain critical government appointments concerning COVID-19.

Lewis Carrol’s Duchess observed (in a hoarse growl): ‘If everybody minded their own business… the world would go round a good deal faster than it does.’ But while the Duchess was not a paragon of rationality (and her child-care skills somewhat below par), she did echo an engrained feeling from across the ages. So, as Robert Whittington’s 1532 translation of Erasmus’s De civilitate morum puerilium (A Lytell Bok of Good Maners for Chyldren) advised: ‘Be nat ouer besy in other mennes causes.’ The Bible (Peter 4.15) also counsels ‘let none

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll