October - 2018

Gay cake case: ‘The objection was to the message, not the messenger’

The UK Supreme court handed down judgment on 10 October 2018 in Lee (Respondent) v Ashers Baking Company Ltd and others (Appellants) (Northern Ireland) [2018] UKSC 49, otherwise known as ‘the gay cake case’. The court unanimously held that Ashers Bakery did not act in a discriminatory way by refusing to make a cake which had the message “Support Gay Marriage”. Background The McArthurs own a number of ‘Ashers Bakeries’ in Northern Ireland in and around the Belfast area. The ow

SWS v Department for Work and Pensions [2018] EWHC 2282 (QB)

Open justice principle reinforced in a case about application for anonymity of statement made in open court. Background (numbers in square brackets refer to paragraphs in the judgment) The initial claim was brought by the Applicant, ‘SWS’, claiming that the Defendant, the Department for Work and Pensions (“DWP”), made wrongful disclosures of information about his health, which the DWP had obtained when he made benefits claims. A Part 36 offer was accepted and the DWP apologis