New Clause 6
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
Judicial review is the supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court over an inferior tribunal or a public authority. The hon. Member for North-West Norfolk referred to the case of Heather and others v. Leonard Cheshire Foundation, which is a Human Rights Act 1998 case that concerns the question what constitutes a public authority. When the 1998 Act was passed, it was intended that the definition of a public authority would be a functional one. That is to say—to use the hon. Gentleman’s example—that if a public service is being delivered by a local authority,it is definitely a public authority. If the service is contracted out to a private provider, as long as that body carries out a public function, it, too, should be a public authority and come within the definition of the 1998 Act, even though it is a private body. The issue in the Leonard Cheshire case was whether that body fell within the definition of a public authority. The ruling was that it did not.
I am not sure that that case is going to the House of Lords, but there are other cases on the same point, which is quite a knotty problem from a human rights perspective. When I was on the Joint Committee on Human Rights, I initiated an inquiry into the current state of the law on public authorities, which is a troubled area. One wants to avoid giving rights with one hand under the Human Rights Act, but then taking them away with the other by contracting out services. The issue remains an area of contention, but I do not think that it has direct application in this case.