British Gas Trading Ltd (appellant) v The Secretary of State For Energy Security & Net Zero (respondent) E.ON UK PLC & ors (appellants) v The Secretary of State For Energy Security & net Zero (respondent)
Tuesday 19 December 2023
By two linked Appellant’s Notices filed on 06 April 2023, the Applicant’s seek permission to appeal the decision of the Divisional Court (Singh LJ and Foxton J sitting) dated 31 March 2023 by which permission for judicial review was refused and costs awarded against the Claimants.
The Appellants (E.ON PLC, E.ON Next Energy Limited and E.ON Energy Solutions Limited in one appeal and British Gas Trading Limited in the other) applied for judicial review of the following decisions of the Secretary of State: 1. a decision announced in a press release on 29 October 2022 that he had approved HMG funding to support the proposed acquisition of Bulb’s assets by HiveCo (a subsidiary of Octopus) (“the Funding Decision”); and 2. a decision dated 7 November 2022 to approve the ETS under the EA 2004 under which the Bulb assets at issue would be acquired by HiveCo (“the Approval Decision”)
In the Judgment, the Divisional Court: (i) refused the Appellants permission to apply for judicial review on the basis of alleged undue delay; and (ii) stated that, had it not done so, it would have refused permission on some grounds.
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