Nicholas Dobson explains why the government was wrong to reduce Housing Possession Duty Schemes without proper consultation
- The Lord Chancellor acted unlawfully in deciding to reduce the number of Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes without sufficient evidence and in breach of the public sector equality duty.
At first glance, consultation seems straightforward enough. In the public law context, this essentially suggests fairly sounding out those likely to be affected by potential proposals at the outset, so that their views can be taken properly into account before anything is taken forward. But what looks like easy terrain can often turn out to be a quagmire for public authorities.
What have become known as the Gunning principles of consultation (from R v Brent London Borough Council, ex parte Gunning , [1985] 84 LGR 168) have been endorsed as a ‘prescription for fairness’. These are that:
- consultation must be at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage;
- the proposer must give sufficient reasons for any proposal to permit of intelligent
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