A few weeks ago we wrote about what we called “the quintessential consultation case”, R (The Police Superintendents’ Association) v Her Majesty’s Treasury. It was a case that covered almost all of the things we regularly see in cases: the legal principles involved, the procedural issues that can arise, and the subject of what relief the court should give to claimants. At the end of that piece, we promised a Briefing Paper on the case, and today we’ve published that paper in the Members’ Area of the website for all Institute Members.

Briefing Paper 41 takes you through the context and history of the case, and discusses each of the separate elements, placing them into the broader context of the law of consultation. We also examine what the case teaches us about our own activities, how we should be consulting and important steps that we can take to ensure that we don’t fall foul of the same problems in this case.

It’s somewhat unusual for us to publish a Briefing Paper on a case like this which does not significantly move the law in one direction or another- usually we reserve them for cases that change or somehow advance the law. This however, despite being a relatively complex case, provided us with a fantastic opportunity to go a little ‘back to basics’ and look at some of the foundational principles that we sometimes don’t discuss as much as we should.

The Paper is now available in the Members’ Area of the website. If you would like to discuss any aspect of it, how we can help you avoid similar problems, or our Law of Consultation courses, please contact the Institute.