HUN -v- London Borough of Tower Hamlets (anonymity order)

Administrative CourtHigh CourtKing's Bench DivisionAnonymity Order

Case number: AC-2025-LON-004252

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

In the matter of an application for judicial review

14 May 2026

Before:

Richard Clayton KC,
sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge

Between:

HUN

-v-

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Order

Notification of Judge’s Decision (CPR 54.11, 54.12)

Following consideration of the documents filed by the Claimant, the Defendant’s Summary Grounds and the Claimant’s Reply.

ORDER BY RICHARD CLAYTON KC,
SITTING AS A DEPUTY HIGH COURT JUDGE

  1. Anonymity:

(a) Pursuant to CPR 39.2(4) and/or the Court’s inherent jurisdiction and/or s. 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998:

i. the Claimant’s name is to be withheld from the public and must not be disclosed in any proceedings in public; and

ii. the Claimant is to be referred to orally and in writing as HUN

(b) Pursuant to s. 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, there must be no publication of the identity of the Claimant or of any matter likely to lead to the identification of the Claimant in any report of, or otherwise in connection with, these proceedings.

(c) Pursuant to CPR 5.4C(4):

i. the parties must within 7 days file a redacted copy of any statement of case filed, omitting the name, address and any other information likely to lead to the identification of the Claimant;

ii. if any statement of case subsequently filed includes information likely to lead to the identification of the Claimant, a redacted copy omitting that information must be filed at the same time;

iii. unless the Court grants permission under CPR 5.4C(6), no non-party many obtain a copy of any unredacted statement of case.

(d) Any person wishing to vary or discharge this Order must make an application, served on each party.

  1. Permission to apply for judicial review: Permission is granted on all grounds.
  2. Expedition: The hearing of the claim is expedited. The hearing is to be listed for ½ to 1 day in the week commencing 15 June 2026..
  3. Case Management Directions:

(a) The Defendant ust, within 10 days of the date of service of this Order, file and serve (i) Detailed Grounds for contesting the claim or supporting it on additional grounds and (ii) any written evidence to be relied on.

(b) The Defendant may comply with sub-paragraph (a)(i) above by filing and serving a document which states that its Summary Grounds are to stand as the Detailed Grounds required by CPR 54.14.

(c) Any application by the Claimant to serve evidence in reply must be filed and served, together with a copy of that evidence, within 6 days days of the date on which the Defendant serves evidence pursuant to (a) above.

(d) The parties must agree the contents of the hearing bundle. An electronic version of the bundle must be prepared and lodged, in accordance with the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide Chapter 21 and the Guidance on the Administrative Court website, not less than 10 days before the date of the substantive hearing. The parties must, if requested by the Court, lodge 2 hard- copy versions of the hearing bundle.

(e) The Claimant must file and serve a Skeleton Argument (maximum 25 pages), complying with CPR 54 PD para. 15 and the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide paras 20.1 to 20.3, not less than 7 days before the date of the substantive hearing.

(f) The Defendant must file and serve a Skeleton Argument (maximum 25 pages), complying with CPR 54 PD para. 15 and the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide paras 20.1 to 20.3, not less than 3 days before the date of the substantive hearing.

(g) The parties must agree the contents of a bundle containing the authorities to be referred to at the hearing. An electronic version of the bundle must be prepared in accordance with the Guidance on the Administrative Court website. The parties must, if requested by the Court, prepare a hard-copy version of the authorities bundle. The electronic version of the bundle and if requested, the hard copy version of the bundle, must be lodged with the Court not less than 7 days before the date of the substantive hearing.

(h) The time estimate for the substantive hearing is ½ to 1 day. If either party considers that this time estimate should be varied, they must inform the court as soon as possible.

(i) CPR 2.11 (variation of timetable by written agreement between the parties) does not apply.

OBSERVATIONS AND REASONS

Factual background

(1) The Claimant lives with her parents and two sons. All members of the family are said to be disabled.

(2) The claim relies on personal medical information in which the Claimant and her children have a reasonable expectation of privacy. There are accordingly compelling reasons for the limited derogations from the principle of open justice in paragraph 1.

(3) In January/February 2025 the Defendant issued a housing needs assessment and personalised housing plan.

(4) On 27 November 2025 the claim was lodged.

(5) The Claimant’s grounds for judicial review can be summarised as:

(a) Ground 1: Failure to carry out lawful housing needs assessment or prepare lawful personalised housing plan under s 189A / breach of section 11 Children Act 2004/ breach of PSED pursuant to s 149 Equality Act 2010.

(b) Ground 2: Failure to make inquiries into whether the main housing duty is owed as required by s 184(1) and/or failure to provide notification of the decision about whether the main housing duty is owed on completion of inquiries as required by s 184(3).

(c) Ground 3: Failure to comply with duty to secure suitable accommodation pursuant to

(d) s 188 (or s 193 if/when that duty is accepted)

(6) In its Acknowledgment of Service the Defendant states:

(a) It is in the process of carrying out further enquiries and the matter has been escalated to the Complex Assessment Team to make a formal decision as to the main housing duty under section 193 of the Housing Act 1996, with the Decision expected by the end of February 2026, due to the complexity of the issues including the issue of considerable rent arrears by the Claimant in their former accommodation.

(b) The Defendant has already previously completed the s.198A housing needs assessment (HNA”) and personal housing plan (“PHP”), however, the Defendant is willing to escalate the issue tothe Complex Assessment team to review these and provide an updated HNA and PHP by the 15th January 2026, following which the Defendant will provide interim accommodation by the 31st January 2026.