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18 March 2022 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7971 / Categories: Features , Public , Covid-19
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Of busybodies & equalities

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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

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A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
NLJ this week: Online safety law at a crossroads
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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Recent allegations surrounding Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have reignited scrutiny of the ancient common law offence of misconduct in public office. Writing in NLJ this week, Simon Parsons, teaching fellow at Bath Spa University, asks whether their conduct could clear a notoriously high legal hurdle
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A landmark ruling has reshaped child clinical negligence claims. Writing in NLJ this week, Jodi Newton, head of birth and paediatric negligence at Osbornes Law, explains how the Supreme Court in CCC v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2026] UKSC 5 has overturned Croke v Wiseman, ending the long-standing bar on children recovering ‘lost years’ earnings
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A Court of Appeal ruling has drawn a firm line under party autonomy in arbitration. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed, associate professor at the University of Leicester, analyses Gluck v Endzweig [2026] EWCA Civ 145, where a clause allowing arbitrators to amend an award ‘at any time’ was held incompatible with the Arbitration Act 1996
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