City council hails rejection by High Court of Richard III judicial review

Leicester City Council has welcomed the High Court’s rejection of a challenge to a decision over where Richard III’s remains should be interred.

The judicial review proceedings were brought by the Plantagenet Alliance, which claimed that the remains should be buried in York rather than Leicester. Richard III was the last King of England to die on the battlefield.

In Plantagenet Alliance Ltd, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Justice & Ors [2014] EWHC 1662 (QB) the claimant challenged:

1. The decision of the Secretary of State for Justice on 3  September 2012 to grant the exhumation licence "without consulting, or attaching conditions requiring the licensee to consult, as to how [or where] the remains of Richard III should be appropriately re-interred in the event that they were found".
2. The decision of the Secretary of State for Justice from 4 February 2013 onwards subsequently "not to re-visit the grant of the licence once it became clear that the University of Leicester would not carry out an appropriate consultation".
3. The decision of the council on or about 4 February 2013 "either to begin making arrangements for the re-interment of the remains of Richard III at Leicester Cathedral or to accede to University's arrangements in that regard".
4. The decision of the University of Leicester on 4 February 2013 "to begin making arrangements for the re-interment of the remains of Richard III at Leicester Cathedral".

The three judges to hear the case – Lady Justice Hallett, Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Haddon-Cave – concluded that there were “no public law grounds for the court interfering with the decisions in question”.

They added that it was clear that the council had no legal duty to consult nor power to intervene once (a) the licence had been granted and (b) Richard III’s remains had been removed from its land.

“Accordingly, it was not necessary for the council to be joined as a defendant to these proceedings,” they said.

Leicester City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “I am delighted that Leicester Cathedral can now proceed with its plans to give King Richard lll a dignified reburial here in the city.

“With the support of the city council and the University of Leicester, the cathedral is now planning for the king’s reinterment to take place in the spring of next year.”

He added: “This will be a momentous event for the city and county, and an opportunity to show the rest of the world that Leicester is the rightful resting place for the last Plantagenet King of England.”