Prisoners

There were no reasonable grounds in domestic law for bringing a claim for damages or a declaration for being disenfranchised whilst a prisoner. Statute precluded it. Case law was against it. European authority was against the payment of compensatory damages in respect of it. A claim for a declaration was not hopeless, but difficult.

The fact the secretary of state (or the state) had not acted to remedy the contravention identified in Strasbourg authorities did not itself give rise to a claim for damages, because the express wording of statute prevented it. Even if he (or the state) had acted to fulfil the state’s obligations, it was far from certain that the second claimant himself would have had the vote, since there were many ways short of full prisoner enfranchisement which were capable of remedying the breach which the European Court had identified.