[2025] EWCA Civ 1126

I do not intend to recite the details of the judgment, save to say that it is a comprehensive exposition of the law by a judge whose expertise in this area is widely acknowledged. The fact that we are disagreeing with aspects of his ultimate conclusions does not lessen my respect for his insightful treatment of the issues with which he was faced.

It is also fair to note that, since the judge’s judgment, the important decision of the Supreme Court emerged in Abbasi v. Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2025] UKSC 15, [2025] 2 WLR 815 (Abbasi SC) providing different reasoning from the decision in the same case in the Court of Appeal ([2023] EWCA Civ 331, [2023] Fam 287) (Abbasi CA), which was available to the judge. As will appear, Abbasi SC, in my judgment, explained and confirmed the development of the common law that had begun in A v. BBC and had been taken forward in Wolverhampton City Council v. London Gypsies and Travellers[2023] UKSC 47, [2024] AC 983 (Wolverhampton).