AC-2025-LON-002122 - [2025] EWHC 2013 (Admin)

If there is an arguable basis for saying that the proscription order is unlawful, and the proceedings are expedited, a substantive judicial hearing could be listed relatively quickly, even allowing for the steps necessary for a closed material procedure under the 2013 Act. It is possible to envisage a substantive hearing in the autumn of 2025. If, on the other hand, it is necessary to apply for deproscription, the Home Secretary will have up to 90 days from the date on which the application is made to determine it. Only then will the right to appeal be triggered. At that point, the claimant (or others) would have to prepare and file an appeal, special advocates would have to be appointed and directions given. Given the normal timescales in POAC and SIAC, it is very unlikely that an appeal would be listed before the middle of 2026.

An alternative remedy may in principle be regarded as sufficiently effective to qualify as a suitable alternative remedy even though it is not available immediately. Glencore is an example. There, the consequence of using the alternative remedy was that the taxpayer had to pay the disputed tax while a review was undertaken and an appeal considered. This meant that the taxpayer was kept out of his money for longer than he would have been if judicial review had been available, though if the appeal ultimately succeeded the tax would be repaid with interest. Sales LJ held at [66] that this regime created a “fair balance between the interest of the public in the timeous payment of tax and the interest of the taxpayer should it eventually show that tax was not in fact due”. The alternative remedy was suitable.

As the reasoning in Glencore shows, whether a later alternative remedy is suitable depends on the nature of the detriment that would be suffered in the period before a decision is reached and on whether, under the relevant statutory scheme, there is an effective remedy for that detriment if it is later shown that the decision was unlawful.