Anne Studd, appearing for the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, successfully resisted an application for judicial review in Pewter v. Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis (3 December 2010).

The case concerned the inadvertent disclosure by the Defendant’s officer of material relating to a convicted sex offender, created under the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and thus subject to Public Interest Immunity (PII). The Claimant contended that such a disclosure placed the material in the public domain and thereby waived the PII of the source documents.

Wilkie J., in rejecting the application, confirmed that the PII status of documents cannot be affected by their inadvertent disclosure. The ruling establishes that the principle, that PII exists independently of any party and thus cannot be waived , survived the introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Claimant was ordered to pay the costs of the action, not to be enforced without leave of the court.

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Anne Studd has extensive expertise in judicial review claims arising from police decisions and in cases related to MAPPA