R (Reprieve & Ors) v Prime Minister

In R (Reprieve & Ors) v Prime Minister [2020] EWHC 1695 (Admin), the Divisional Court (Sharp P and Farbey J) ruled on a preliminary issue in the Claimants’ judicial review challenge to the Prime Minister’s decision not to order an independent judge-led inquiry into UK complicity in torture and rendition. The Court held that Article 6 ECHR did not apply to these judicial review proceedings, and rejected the Claimants’ argument that the enhanced standard of disclosure set out in Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF (No 3) [2009] UKHL 28 applied. Directions were given for a closed material proceeding involving Special Advocates which will be closed to the Claimants and the public. A substantive hearing with both CLOSED and OPEN components is listed in December 2020.

Ben Jaffey QC and Natasha Simonsen act for the Claimants (who are Reprieve, the Rt Hon David Davis MP and Dan Jarvis MBE MP). Sir James Eadie acts for the Defendant.

The judgment can be found here.