Administrative and Public law
Administrative and Public Law covers a vast area of specialities, reflecting the many different ways in which local and central government impacts on the lives of citizens. The common thread is that public bodies have defined purposes, limited powers, and importantly, duties to act fairly and reasonably in all their dealings with the public.
3PB are experts in interpreting statutory schemes, understanding the limits of powers, advising on how public bodies are required to act to comply with their duties under the Human Rights Act 1998, the Data Protection Act 1998, international conventions to which the United Kingdom is a party, and the increasingly important Public Sector Equality Duties under the Equality Act 2010.
Our barristers' experience focuses in local government, healthcare and social welfare and on public law issues connected with Chambers’ specialisms in other areas – regulation of the professions (especially medical and accounting), education law, the rights of special needs children and their parents and discrimination law. This particularly involves work in the Court of Protection (and the High Court sitting in the COP jurisdiction), in relation to decisions about medical treatment, end of life decisions, community care, mental health law and education law.
3PB presently has 10 appointees to the Attorney General’s Panel of Junior Counsel; click here to view the various lists in London and regionally. Some members have extensive experience of handling public international law.
Our dedicated and experienced clerking team provides a 24 hour service, 365 days a year to arrange for urgent advice and representation from members of the Public & Regulatory team, and prides itself on dealing with emergency orders and out of hours applications efficiently. The group's practice management team can be reached here.
Our Public and Regulatory Barristers...
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3PB public law barrister Matthew Wyard, pictured here, recently acted in a judicial review for the claimant in R(on the application of EP, through her litigation friend MAP) v Norfolk County Council and successfully secured home to school transport for them, as well as an agreed quashing of multiple decisions refusing this support. The claimant, EP, is a disabled child with physical and mental disabilities. At secondary transfer she secured a place at T School....
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The Supreme Court has today, Wednesday 2 February 2022, given judgment refusing the claimants’ appeals in R (O and Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKSC 3, the high-profile appeal concerning the fees charged to children applying to register as British citizens. 3PB's public law and regulatory barrister William Hansen, pictured here, represented the Home Secretary. The Appellants, led by the campaigning group...
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3PB education and public law expert Alice de Coverley acted as Junior Counsel for Ofsted, led by Sarah Hannett QC, in this major public inquiry. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has found "shocking failings" and "blatant hypocrisy" in the way major UK religious groups handle child sex abuse allegations. IICSA concluded some religious organisations in England and Wales were "morally failing" children. IICSA set this all out in its report arising from their...
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3PB Barristers offers warmest congratulations to our colleague Sunyana Sharma who has been appointed an Assistant Coroner for Hampshire. Sunyana’s appointment is further recognition of her expertise in inquests and coronial law. Sunyana Sharma is a regulatory and inquest barrister who specialises in clinical deaths, deaths at sea, fatal accidents at work and deaths in care home settings. She provides added value to cases as a result of her previous practice area of personal injury in which...
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Congratulations to barrister William Hansen, one of 3PB’s senior specialist counsel in public law, property law and commercial litigation, who has been re-appointed for another five years to the Attorney General’s (AG's) A Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown. William, pictured here, regularly acts for a variety of government departments and agencies including the Secretary of State for the Home Department, HMRC, MoJ, the NCA and the Secretary of State for Business. He routinely...
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3PB’s public and education law specialist Matthew Wyard joins seven other 3PB barristers on the Attorney General’s (AG’s) panel of counsel including A panel members of soon-to-be QC Mathew Gullick and fellow public and regulatory barrister William Hansen. In total, 3PB has 13 barristers across the AG’s London, Regional, Public International Law and Junior Junior panels. The Attorney General’s panel of counsel consists of counsel who undertake civil and EU work for all government departments....
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3PB’s Matthew Wyard has today given a presentation to a variety of legal practitioners, NGO’s, charities and public bodies on how the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is incorporated into Welsh specific legislation. The talk was given at the invitation of the Equality & Human Rights Commission and the Wales Observatory on Children and Young People’s Rights as part of the inaugural ‘Strategic Litigation’ workshop held by the organisations designed...
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It is with great pleasure that 3PB Barristers announces that, on the recommendation of The Lord Chancellor, Her Majesty The Queen has announced her intention to appoint family barrister Lucy Hendry and public and employment law barrister Mathew Gullick as Queen's Counsel in the Ministry of Justice's new Silk appointments published today, 17 December 2020. Lucy Hendry was called to the Bar in 1988 and is a family barrister and accredited mediator who specialises in...
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3PB Barristers have created a dedicated webpage on its website to act as a hub for the many articles, briefings and webinar and podcast recordings about lockdown laws and regulations as well as practical issues like court attendance, e-bundles, remote and hybrid hearings. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to create employment, contractual and other legal challenges which are in many ways unprecedented. The impact of the virus is being felt, and in response, 3PB have...
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3PB is delighted to announce that public law barrister Matthew Wyard has been appointed as a Chair of the Valuation Tribunal for England as of 22 June 2020. Matthew will sit in the Valuation Tribunal for England hearing appeals against decisions of the Valuation Office in respect of both council tax bandings and business rates. To contact Matthew, please email him at matthew.wyard@3pb.co.uk or to instruct him, email his clerk Tom Cox on tom.cox@3pb.co.uk.
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3PB barrister Mathew Gullick was junior counsel for the Justice Secretary in The Queen (on the applications of Hallam and Nealon) v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] UKSC 2 in which the Supreme Court, by a 5-2 majority, has ruled that the definition of “miscarriage of justice” in section 133(1ZA) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 is not incompatible with Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (the presumption of innocence). ...
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