COVID-19 – Lockdown: trying but not unlawful

Alerter by Jonathan Lewis.

In R (Dolan & Ors) v Secretary of State for Health & Social Care,  the Claimants advanced a plethora of arguments in an attempt to persuade the court that the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 (the “Regulations”) were unlawful. In a pithy judgment, Lewis J found the claims to have been brought promptly but refused to allow the Claimants to challenge particular regulations that had already been amended. He found that the Regulations were not ultra vires, not irrational and did not breach the Claimants’ rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”).