Nicholas Dobson reports on the lawfulness of public authority policies & guidance
- Guidance in the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme was lawful when it required the police to consider seeking representations from the subject if the application for disclosure raised relevant concerns (including where the subject has child sex offence convictions).
As the early 17th century proverb advises, honesty is the best policy. Marx would agree, asserting that: ‘The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing’. However, this being Groucho and not Karl, he added: ‘If you can fake that, you’ve got it made’.
But what is a policy in terms of government and other public authorities? The Oxford English Dictionary takes us into the ballpark, giving the usual sense as including: ‘A principle or course of action adopted or proposed as desirable, advantageous, or expedient; esp. one formally advocated by a government, political party, etc.’
The Supreme Court recently gave public authority policies some heavy-duty attention when considering the standards applicable by courts when judicially reviewing
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