Case No. UKUT-00338-(IAC)

for Northern Ireland [2006] UKHL 53; [2007] 1 AC 650, in which Lord Bingham stated at [3] that ‘orders for disclosure should not be automatic [and] [t]he test will always be whether, in the given case, disclosure appears to be necessary in order to resolve the matter fairly and justly.’ 64.That leads us to a second point made by Ms Weston, which is that it is impermissible in this context to make an application for specific disclosure which amounts, in truth, to nothing more than a ‘fishing expedition’ of the type deprecated expressly by Lord Carswell and Lord Brown at [31] and [56] of Tweed v Parades Commission. Whilst a respondent in such proceedings might desire to have access to an applicant’s entire social media footprint, we consider there to be a number of proper objections to a request which is framed so widely. As we have already observed, and as reflected in the expert report of Dr Veale, an individual’s social media accounts are likely to contain a vast amount of information about them, much of which is likely to be irrelevant to the matters in issue. That material may contain information about a person’s medical history or even information which is subject to legal professional privilege. 65.To require an applicant to surrender their login details and to have their social media accounts scrutinised by a local authority’s legal team is an interference with their private life. We cannot see how it would ever be proportionate to expect an applicant who has confirmed that they have complied with their duty of candour to submit to such wide-ranging scrutiny in the hope that the local authority might discover something not previously disclosed which bears on the matters in issue. Before making such a wide-ranging order, it would be incumbent upon a judge to consider whether a less intrusive measure could properly be used in order to achieve the legitimate aim pursued, since that is a necessary consideration in the modern conventional approach to issues of proportionality under Article 8 (or Article 10) ECHR: