The Duke of Sussex has won a bid to bring part of his high court claim against the Home Office over his security arrangements while in the UK.
Harry is bringing legal action over a decision not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family when they are in the UK. At a preliminary hearing last month his lawyers sought permission for a full judicial review of the Home Office decision.
He is challenging the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) after being told he would no longer be given the “same degree” of personal protection when visiting.
In a judgment on Friday, the high court judge Mr Justice Swift said the case could proceed, granting permission for part of Harry’s claim to have a judicial review.
The judge said: “The application for permission to apply for judicial review is allowed in part and refused in part.”
Harry is seeking to challenge the decision not to grant him automatic police protection whenever he is in the UK. His legal team argue that the security arrangements set out in a letter from Ravec, and their application when he visited the UK in June 2021, were invalid due to “procedural unfairness” because he was not given an opportunity to make “informed representations beforehand”.
Shaheed Fatima QC, for the duke, told the court earlier this month: “He didn’t know at that stage that the Royal household was involved at all ... he was told it was an independent decision.”
His lawyers had argued that the Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young should not have been involved in the decision to deny him police protection in the UK due to the “significant tensions” between them.
Lawyers for the Home Office argued Ravec was entitled to reach the decision it did, which is that Harry’s security arrangements would be considered on a “case by case” basis, and that permission for a full judicial review should be refused.
The judge ruled parts of four of the five grounds Harry claimed were “arguable” , which means there will now be a full high court hearing to review the duke’s claim.
The judge said it was arguable that Ravec’s decisions were legally unreasonable and the duke should have been told about Ravec’s policy before its decision in February 2020; and it was arguable whether the duke “should have had the opportunity to make representations direct to Ravec, including the opportunity to comment on other matters Ravec considered”.
However, the judge denied permission for other parts of Harry’s claim, including that he should have been told who the members of Ravec were and that he did not have the chance to discuss the “appropriateness” of some people being involved in the committee.
The judge said: “In the course of submissions, it became apparent that, while the claimant may have had disagreements with persons who were Ravec committee members, there was no evidence at all to support a claim that any committee member had approached decisions with a closed mind, or that either decision was affected by bias.” He added: “Ultimately it was accepted for the claimant that no such case was, or could be, advanced.”
The judge added that the Home Office was “yet to have the chance to address in evidence” the process by which Ravec took its decision and this “should be considered at a final hearing”.
