Legal action against the Government

Firstly, thank you for the support from so many in regards to our actions so far to stop the victimisation of the events industry by the government. I am now asking for your help as we take the next step forward in bringing legal action against the Government to allow us all in the events industry to sensibly, and responsibly, trade again. I have outlined more below, as concisely as I can, but the help requested is:

·      To show interest and support in forcing a Judicial Review

·      Providing any more comparable situations where other industries are being allowed to operate and the events industry are, illogically, unable to trade.

On Friday I met with a head litigator, from a top London Law Firm, who has exceptional experience in judicial reviews having acted on behalf, and against, the government in major cases. This was in regards to our current Petition and argument that the Government is acting illegally and unreasonably in the shutting down of the events industry.

The overall plan would be to force a Judicial Review to quash their current blanket banning of events due it being an overuse of the Coronavirus Act 2020 and inconsistent to their approach to other areas of business and society. From the discussions Judicial Reviews have four Heads or main grounds for review:

1, Illegality

2, Procedural Unfairness

3, Legitimate Expectation

4, Irrationality in the decision or “Wednesbury Unreasonableness” A reasoning or decision is Wednesbury unreasonable (or irrational) if it is so unreasonable that no reasonable person acting reasonably could have made it (Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation (1948).

From the litigator’s experience and understanding of current law and the framework put in place with the Coronavirus Act, which was done with planned looseness to give them an ability to put policies in place without debate, the best grounds to force a judicial review will be the 4th – Irrationality in the decision. The focus here will be showing how it is irrational for events in Covid safe environments and Covid prevention protocols to not be allowed to go ahead while in other areas of business and society people are allowed to come together in less controlled, and controllable, environments.

To bring this to a review is at minimum a three step process:

A, We will initially need to send correspondence to the Government Department saying that we think we have a claim

B, We need to seek permission from the Judicial courts for the Review to go ahead showing legitimate Interest in the claim (which we have)

C, We would need to wait for a court date to be set which can be anything from 4 – 6 months from now.

While the timeline is long, and we would all hope to have seen policy reviews before then, by starting the process of bringing a Review to happen we will get the ball rolling, should policies not change, and it will signal an intent of legal action against the government which may help to initiate the necessary changes so the events industry can trade again without legal action.

I, and Off to Work, are happy to lead this work however the more weight we have from senior people and companies in the events industry who have a legitimate interest in the outcome of the review the more serious our action will be taken and the greater chance of success.

Obvious examples of where there is irrationality in the decision making process include:

·      An ability to have 300 people on a plane for a long haul flight but not allow 300 people into a theatre

·      An ability to have a full restaurant or bar but not allow a venue, which has ten times the space, to hold a business event for more than 30 people

·      An ability to have a social distanced audience in a cinema but not to have the same in a business event space

·      An ability to have multiple tables of six dining in a restaurant but not to allow the same for a business or private event

·      An ability to have hundreds of people on closed off streets in Soho eating and drinking together but not allowing venues (sporting or other) with large outside spaces to operate business, public or private events.

·      An ability to have 30 children (11 a side plus substitutes) playing a contact sport such as football for 1.5 hours, plus the coaching staff, but not allow more than 6 people to meet in a controlled non-contact way for a social occasion.

These, I am sure, are just the top of the iceberg when it comes to the irrationality in their decision making and if you do have other examples / comparable scenarios that we can list I would be extremely grateful to hear them.

The situation is extremely urgent with many of the events ecosystem and established companies now being in danger of collapse with literally hundreds of thousands of jobs being at risk. Any help you can give as we present our case and fight for our right to trade as the viable and life re-affirming industry we are will be hugely appreciated. Together we have a better chance of our sector surviving.

Kind regards

Philip