Blimey, given this expertise (the VTF) was appointed in April/May of last year the government must be given even greater credit for being such brilliant fortune tellers.
The government has lost another judicial review case. Judgment set to be released later today (Monday). May be significant for the hospitality industry and whether the government can arbitrarily lock down certain sectors.
Will post it when I see it published.
Still awaiting Lady Justice OāFarrellās decision in the Public First JR. This is what I would describe as the first of the JR cases that may reveal cronyism (Cummings is said to be involved in this one). Hearing was two weeks ago.
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Do you know how many cases the government is tied up in at the moment?
No, sorry I donāt. The government is always facing quite a few judicial reviews at any one time though, irrespective of whatās going on and whoās in charge. Maybe at least a hundred active cases at any one time?
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I did not know this was a thing. I can understand some challenges but this feels like itās on a unprecedented scale at the moment.
In some ways itās probably preventing Starmer raising the issue to a higher level given that
a) itās tied up in a legal confidentiality etc.
b) Boris wouldnāt answer anyway
Most of them are nonsense, really. A large number of them donāt even get past the permission stage (ie, they donāt go to a hearing and are struck out). Thatās not a reflection of skullduggery, BTW, just how batshit or legally illiterate some of the claims are. Most of the Brexit claims failed at this first hurdle for these reasons. I set out why at the time in the other place.
Itās also important to note that claims are brought against individual Secretaries of State as the figurehead of the departments they represent, when the decision being subject to review may not have been theirs. Some departments are inherently more likely to deal with judicial review applications.
Iāve found this:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/889851/civil-justice-statistics-quarterly-Jan-Mar-2020-accessible-.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjcuOT2-Y7vAhUVmVwKHbC4BMMQFjAJegQICxAC&usg=AOvVaw3Pu6N8LsXBmF8YzLukRiIQ&cshid=1614597398130
6. Judicial Reviews2
Compared to all other government departments/bodies in 2019, the Ministry of
Justice (MoJ) had the highest number of Judicial review applications lodged
against it.
The Ministry of Justice had 1,100 Judicial Reviews against it in 2019, down 7% on 2018.
The Home Office had the second largest number with 976 JRs in 2019 (down 17% on
2018).
There have been 798 judicial review applications received in 2020 so far, down 14% when
compared to the same period in 2019 (from 930). In 2019, there were 3,400 applications
received in total, down 6% on 2018.
Figure 7: Annual Judicial Review Applications, by type; calendar year 2000-2019
(Source: table 2.1)
Of the 3,400 judicial review applications received in 2019, 1,600 were civil immigration and
asylum applications, 1,600 were civil (other) and 170 were criminal, down 9%, 0% and 19%
respectively on the same period of 2018. 53 of the civil immigration and asylum cases have
since been transferred to the UTIAC. Judicial review applications for criminal cases peaked
at 380 in 2012 and have decreased since then to 210 in 2018. They continued to decrease
in 2019, falling to 170 cases.
Judicial review figures, broken down by defendant type (i.e. individual government
department or public body), are published annually. This information is derived from the
ādefendant nameā free text field, which is then grouped by defendant type. As this is a
manually typed field, it is open to inputting errors and therefore should be used with caution.
The key findings from the 2019 figures are:
ā¢ The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was the department/body with the largest number of
JR applications lodged against them, with 1,100 applications (down 7% on 2018).
124 applications were granted permission to proceed to the final hearing stage (12%
of applications) and 20 (2%) were found in favour of the claimant.
ā¢ Of the MoJ JR applications, 729 were specifically against Tribunals (69% of all MoJ
JRs). The number of JR cases against tribunals increased by 5% when compared to
the number of applications lodged in 2018.
ā¢ The second largest recipient of JR cases was the Home Office, with 976 cases
received (a 17% decrease on the previous year). Of these, 158 were granted
permission to proceed to final hearing (16% of applications) and of these, 12 (1%)
were found in favour of the claimant.
ā¢ The third largest recipient was Local Authorities, having 586 applications lodged
against them, down 10% on the previous year. Of these cases, 210 were granted
permission to proceed to final hearing (36% of applications), and of these, 27 (5%)
were found in favour of the claimant.
As a very broad summary Iād estimate that every year between 3,000 and 4,000 JRs are brought against various government departments/bodies. Approximately 80% are refused at the permission stage. Of the ~20% of cases that are then defended (600-800 during an annual period), approximately 10-20% are successful (60-160).
JR normally takes less than six months so Iād estimate that at any one time the government legal department (GLD) is defending 300-400 active cases.
That doesnāt include the claims that havenāt yet been issued and the government is having to answer pre-action. There will be hundreds of those.
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Thereās been a more recent bulletin Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2020 - GOV.UK
There may even have been a more recent one than that or at least one that is due very soon. That says that there were 2,200 applications for judicial review in the first 3 quarters of 2020 (down on 2019 when there were 2,600).
So actually there have been fewer JR applications up to September of 2020 than there were in the year before to the same date. Although, of course, Jolyon Maugham didnāt really get going until after September so heās probably brought the numbers back up on on his ownā¦ 
Lots of money for old rope!
It also shows that I wasnāt too far out with my estimate of 6 months as the mean time from a claim being lodged to a final hearing was 139 days, marginally quicker than the year before which was 143 days. Of the 2,200 applications in the first 3 quarters of 2020, 330 were granted permission to proceed to a final hearing of which 38 had been heard (by September 2020). No indication as to how many were successful but going by previous estimates Iād say it would likely have been around a quarter.
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Wow
Iāll be amazed if Wolff and Sturgeon survive this.
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Thatās a very poor way to put that question. He should rephrase the question before answering it! 
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Boris Johnson backs plan for a joint UK and Republic of Ireland bid for 2030 World Cup. Wonder if it will be United Republic of Ireland by then.
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Yet another World Cup bid bound to fail. At least, for once, it will be down to a better rival bid (Uruguay and Argentina).
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Isnāt Novara Media the leftās equivalent to Fox whatever it was that was criticised a few days ago?
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Iām a total coke addict 
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Who allowed this?
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Actually it looked well-researched and informative but I am sceptical of its presentation. The introductory paragraphs are very impartial (I guess to draw you in) and the one link I followed, didnāt support the rather extraordinary claim being made.
Since becoming leader, Starmer has [ā¦] advocated legal immunity for police officers (Labour facing another split over police immunity in 'spy cops' bill | Labour | The Guardian) who commit murder, torture or rape;
No. No he hasnāt and nor does the link in support of such a wild claim suggest that he has.
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Iām getting really tired with the continued attacks on Starmer from the hard left, on the grounds that he isnāt Corbyn.
Mind you he doesnāt help himself. The Patriotism stuff was just fucking risible.
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Agreed. And one of the reasons why it was risible was because you could quite clearly see how uncomfortable he was with it, which directly undermines the criticisms from the left of him being some kind of jingoistic establishment stooge.
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