January 2017

The High Court has ruled that 42,000 people in the Niger Delta affected by oil pollution cannot proceed with a legal challenge in the UK against Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary.

Shell has been responsible for oil spills in the Niger Delta.  The UN’s Environment Programme UNEP researched the destruction and produced a report in 2011.  It found that Shell had not taken sufficient action to clean up and set out initial steps to rectify the damage. 

The High Court granted leave to hundreds of Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) boiler owners to judicially review government plans to publish their names.

The RHI scheme was set up to encourage businesses and other non-domestic users to move from using fossil fuels to renewable heating schemes.  However, the contracts permitted users to financially profit from the schemes by enabling them to earn £1.60 for every £1 of fuel burned.  This led to many users burning fuel unnecessarily for the purpose of making a substantial profit.

Mirza and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] UKSC 63

The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the applicants’ judicial review of the Secretary of State’s decisions to treat a number of asylum applications as invalid.

An Application by Siobhan McLaughlin for Judicial Review [2016] NICA 53

In our March 2016 update, we reported that the High Court had found that the denial of bereavement benefits to a mother on the ground she was not married to her partner at his date of death, and where children were impacted, was unlawful.  The DSD appealed this decision and the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal.