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Private act, public function?

11 July 2025 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 8124 / Categories: Features , Public , Human rights
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Neil Parpworth considers whether electing a new party leader is a public law function for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998?
  • In Tortoise Media Ltd, the Court of Appeal ruled that electing a party leader—even one who becomes prime minister—is a private act, not a public function under the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998), despite its significant public consequences.
  • The Conservative Party was not deemed a ‘public authority’ under s 6 of HRA 1998, so it had no legal obligation to disclose internal leadership election data, even when challenged under Art 10 of the ECHR. But judicial review is still possible.

Section 6(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) lies at the heart of human rights protection in English law by making it ‘unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right’. This begs the question: what is a ‘public authority’ for the purposes of HRA 1998? The answer, however, is less straightforward than in some other

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NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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