July 25, 2022

AB and other -v- Secretary of State for Heath and Social Care and another (anonymity order)

Administrative Court High Court Queen's Bench Division Anonymity Order

Claim No: CO/1783/2022

In the High Court of Justice
Queen’s Bench Division
Administrative Court

and in the matter of an application for permission to apply for judicial review

19 July 2022

Before:

The Hon Mrs Justice Farbey

Between:

The Queen on the application of

(1) AB
and
(2) CD
(3) EF
children by their mother and litigation friend AB

-v-

Secretary of State for Heath and Social Care

and
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation

UPON THE CLAIMANT’S APPLICATION for permission to apply for judicial review

AND UPON CONSIDERING the Claimants’ application for anonymity and the witness statement of the First Claimant; and the documents lodged by the parties

AND UPON IT APPEARING that non-disclosure of the identity of the Second Claimant and the Third Claimant, who are children, is necessary in order to protect their interests; and that, in order to do so, it is necessary to order the non-disclosure of the identity of the First Claimant, the Second Claimant and the Third Claimant or other details that could identify them;

AND PURSUANT to rule 39.2(4) of the Civil Procedure Rules and section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and rules 5.4A to 5.4D of the Civil Procedure Rules;

WHEREAS, pursuant to CPR r. 39.2(4), the Court is satisfied that an order in the terms below is necessary to protect the interests of the Claimant and there is no sufficient countervailing public interest in disclosure;

UPON MAKING THIS ORDER WITHOUT A HEARING, any party or non-party having the right to apply to set it aside as provided herein;

IT IS ORDERED THAT:
1. The First Claimant be appointed litigation friend of the Second and Third Claimants
2. The identity of the Second and Third Claimants, their litigation friend the First Claimant, their home address, the area in which they live and their school shall not be disclosed
3. The Claimants and their litigation friend shall be described in all statements of case and other documents to be filed or served in the proceedings and in any judgment or order in the proceedings and in any report of the proceedings by the press or otherwise, as relevant, as ‘AB’, ‘CD’ and ‘EF’ respectively
4. The address of the Claimants be stated in all statements of case and other documents to be filed or served in the proceedings as the address of the Claimants’ solicitors
5. To the extent necessary to protect the Claimants’ identity, any other references, whether to persons or places or otherwise, be adjusted appropriately, with permission to the parties to apply in default of agreement as to the manner of such adjustments
6. So far as the Statement of Facts and Grounds, or any Judgment or Order, or any other document to which anyone might have access pursuant to CPR Rule 5.4 at any time does not comply with the above, the Claimants’ solicitor has leave to file with the Court copies of such document adjusted so as to comply. Such copies are to be treated for all purposes as being in substitution for the relevant originals
7. A non-party may not, without the permission of the court inspect or obtain a copy of the application for anonymity of 16 May 2022, the witness statements of the First Claimant or any statement of case or document on or from the court file unless it has been anonymised in accordance with this direction and there has been redacted any information which might identify the Claimants or the litigation friend; and any application for such permission (i.e. to inspect or obtain a non- anonymised version) must be made on notice to the Claimants in accordance with CPR r. 5.4C (6) and the Court will effect service; the file is to be retained by the Court and marked “Anonymised”
8. Reporting restrictions apply as to the disclosing of any information that may lead to the subsequent identification of the Claimant or the litigation friend; and the publication of the name and address of the Claimant or of any member of the Claimants’ immediate family or the name of and address of the litigation friend is prohibited
9. Any party or non-party affected by this Order may apply on 48 hours’ notice to all parties to have this Order set aside or varied
10. A copy of this order shall be published on the Judicial Website of the High Court of Justice.