Supreme Court to hand down key ruling next week on consultations

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down next week (29 October) a key ruling on the proper approach to consultations.

The case of R (on the application of Moseley (in substitution of Stirling) v London Borough of Haringey specifically considered consultations conducted under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 in respect of proposed ‘council tax reduction schemes. These schemes were introduced to replace council tax benefit.

The appeal considered whether a fair consultation required that consultees be informed not just of the proposals of the local authority, but also of the reasons for the proposals.

It also considered whether consultees should be given sufficient information to enable them to critically examine the thinking that led to the proposals.

The case arose out of Haringey’s consultation upon its council tax reduction scheme. The Government subsequently announced a Transitional Grant Scheme (TGS) but the authority adopted its council tax reduction scheme without re-consultation.

Haringey argued that the Transitional Grant Scheme did not affect the draft scheme.

The local authority won in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal in February 2013.

Before the Supreme Court, the appellant argued that the consultation process was unfair and unlawful because:

• Consultees had not been provided with sufficient information to understand that there were alternatives to the draft scheme; and
• Haringey should have re-consulted when the Transitional Grant Scheme was announced.

A five-justice panel of the Supreme Court – comprising Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Clarke, Lord Wilson and Lord Reed – heard the case on 19 June.