Environment Protection

(asked on 1st November 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the oral contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, of 18 October 2016, Official Report, column 300WH, on Environmental protection, what information the Government holds on the average costs to the litigant of (a) a judicial review, (b) a case being considered by the European Court of Justice and (c) the European Commission; what the scope is of such judgments; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Thérèse Coffey Portrait
Thérèse Coffey
This question was answered on 8th November 2016

(a) The Department does not hold data on costs to claimants of specifically environmental judicial reviews. However, information on costs can be found in the paper The Value and Effects of Judicial Review. The Nature of Claims, their Outcomes and Consequences. London: Public Law Project. (available at: http://www.publiclawproject.org.uk/data/resources/210/Value-and-Effects-of-Judicial-Review.pdf). Claimants in environmental cases in the High Court may be entitled to costs protection, limiting their exposure to the defending public authority’s costs to £5,000 for an individual and £10,000 in other cases.

(b) The department does not hold specific information on the costs to a litigant of a case being considered by the Court of Justice of the EU. There are no court fees in the Court of Justice which has power to grant legal aid to litigants.

(c) The department does not hold any information about potential costs to litigants associated with the process of bringing a complaint to the attention of the European Commission.

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