A leading businessman, Simon Dolan, has launched a legal challenge to the lawfulness of the Government’s ongoing Covid-19 lockdown. The Government has until 12 June to provide its response.
Philip Havers QC is instructed as leading counsel with junior counsel Francis Hoar, instructed by Michael Gardner of Wedlake Bell.
The Judicial Review claim contends that:
- The Government had no power under the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984 to make the Regulations which introduced the lockdown
- The decision to impose the lockdown is and was irrational and disproportionate
- The lockdown interferes with many of the rights of the people such as the right to liberty (because it amounts to a form of house arrest), the right to respect for private and family life (because it prevents people from free contact with family and friends), the right to freedom of religion (because the Government has closed all places of worship), the right not to be deprived of an education (because the Government has closed all our schools) and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of property (because the Government has closed most business premises). Mr Dolan argues that these unprecedented interferences with our rights is unjustified.
More information on the challenge can be found on the Wedlake Bell website here. Featured on 22/6/2020 in Law Society Gazette.
UPDATE: R (Dolan) v S/S for Health and S/S for Education judgment available here.
