The week in which the Royal College of Ophthalmologists may have considered relocating. But to be serious…
Legal challenges to lockdown
The UK Human Rights Blog reports that a businessman, Simon Dolan, is mounting a legal challenge to the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (England) Regulations 2020 (as amended). The letter before action summarises the grounds of the challenge as follows:
- that they are ultra vires s.45C of the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984, in that they are disproportionate and unlawfully fetter the Government’s discretion to consider less draconian measures; and
- that they are unlawful under the Human Rights Act 1998 in that the restrictions constitute a disproportionate breach of fundamental rights and freedoms in the ECHR. In particular, they contravene Articles 5 (right to liberty), 8 (respect for private and family life), 9 (thought, conscience and religion), 11 (assembly and association) and 14 (discrimination). It is argued that the measures also breach A1P1 (property – which Mr Dolan contends includes business interests) and A2P1 (education).