judicial review update

Update from NAPO’s website

Following our initial directions hearing at the High Court to apply for a Judicial Review, Napo yesterday attended a disclosure h2earing.  For quite some time, Napo has been seeking to secure a copy of the Test Gate 4 report but, to date, the Secretary of State had only provided  summaries, but not the report itself. Because of this, and as the Secretary of State had provided so little other accompanying documentary evidence with  their witness statements  an application for specific disclosure was made on behalf of Napo, and yesterday afternoon, the Secretary of State was ordered to provide significant documentary evidence, including – importantly – the Test Gate 4 and Test Gate 5 reports.  Whilst not all of our requests were accepted by the Judge a significant proportion were, and the documentation that will be released is highly significant in relation to our case against the Secretary of State.The documentation which will be provided will be subject to an implied duty of confidentiality until such time that they are referred to in open Court.  Napo’s Officers and Officials will not therefore be able to disclose any information regarding specific documents to members.Whilst we still have a long way to go in our legal challenge which is set to commence on 10th December, this is a significant step for Napo and one we hope will provide a boost to members as they continue to work within the chaos of probation on a day to day basis.