This Ecologist essay is set against the background of this current consultation and he also describes how the Government have systematically downgraded their commitment to the environment.
The consultation: ‘Costs protection in environmental claims‘ runs from 17th September 2015 to 10th December 2015.
Paul Mobbs The Ecologist Essays ‘Little publicised government plans to ‘reform’ court costs are intended to foreclose access to environmental justice for all but the wealthiest individuals and communities, writes Paul Mobbs. Meanwhile cuts to agencies and regulators will make it ever harder for them to do their jobs – making public participation in environmental protection all the more important.
If the public are unable to challenge regulators because they cannot muster the resources to do so, any such failures will pass unchallenged. The Government’s policies of ‘environmental austerity’ will proceed unhindered by adverse court rulings.
One of the founding principles of the democratic process is the concept of ‘natural justice‘ – that all should be equal before the law, and that biased or questionable decisions by public authorities should be open to review by independent courts.
A key enabler of natural justice that the costs of accessing judicial procedures should be affordable to all – otherwise, on economic grounds, those basic democratic guarantees fail to exist for the poorest in society, and may be abused by the most wealthy.
In a variety of ways, over the last few years the Government has deliberately set out to undermine the public’s expectations for ‘natural justice’. They have sought to apply policy in a more dictatorial manner – reducing consultation, while at the same time making it much harder to challenge bad decisions via the courts, and have removed legal aid to support many people’s access to justice.
Today, from employment tribunals to the highest court in the land, it is now much harder, and much more expensive, to challenge unjust decisions. And now another attempt to weaken the public’s rights to obtain justice is under way.
Since September the Government have been running a little-publicised consultation on ‘reforming’ court costs, entitled ‘Costs protection in environmental claims‘. The proposals would diminish the financial protection for members of the public bringing environmental law cases before the courts in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland are also likely to review their procedures if they change in England).
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