Case No: CO/3833/2012
Date
17 July 2012
Link to judgment
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2012/1928.html
Discrimination grounds
Disability
Summary of case
The Applicant was 21 years old. He suffered from ADHD and also had learning difficulties. Every Wednesday he attended a Youth Centre financed by the Council. He challenged the Council’s Revenue Budget for 2012/13 ‘in relation to the provision of Youth Services’ because he feared that the budget for the Youth Centre was to be cut and that the Council had not complied with the equality duty when it agreed this aspect of its budget.
Outcome
The Council had taken due regard of its equality duty. In commenting on the decision making process the Judge said:
The one significant omission was that members were not sent the EIAs which had been prepared throughout 2011 and in January 2012. The existence of the EIAs was made known to members but officers left it to members to obtain copies of EIAs either in electronic form or as hard copies… I have reached the conclusion that the members were provided with sufficient information so as to enable them to comply with their statutory duty under section 149 of the 2010 Act. In reaching that view I am conscious that Ms Thornton’s submission and address to the members suggested otherwise. I have scrutinised her submission with care. It does not seem to me, however, that it demonstrated that the EIA was incapable of informing members sufficiently upon the Defendant’s public service equality duties especially given that the members must have had a wealth of relevant local knowledge to supplement the written information provided to them.
