Examination Timing: 00H01M38S
A local council introduces a ban on school-age children entering coffee shops, shopping centres and cinemas between 8am and 6pm on school days. This decision is an attempt to reduce high levels of truancy in city centre schools. It is made under legislation giving local authorities full discretionary powers to introduce measures aimed at improving educational attainment and it is introduced without public consultation. Local businesses are outraged by this decision and seek legal advice. Many of them rely on trade from local school children, and since school lessons finish by 3.30pm they cannot see how the ban until 6pm can be justified. No human rights issues are at stake.
Which of the following statements best summarises the basis on which this decision could be challenged through judicial review?
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Judicial review can be used to challenge a public authority's decision if it is deemed to be irrational or unreasonable. The standard for irrationality, also known as Wednesbury unreasonableness, is met if a decision is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied their mind to the question could have arrived at it. In this case, the local council's decision to impose a ban until 6pm, well after school finishes, may be considered irrational and disproportionate.
Key Point: Wednesbury unreasonableness is a ground for judicial review where a decision is so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could ever have come to it. This ensures that public authorities exercise their powers within the bounds of rationality and fairness.
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