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Acting to stop harm: the FCA and Appointed Representatives
James Alleyne
In May 2011 a committee chaired by the Master of the Rolls published its report “Super Injunctions, Anonymised Injunctions and Open Justice” as a result of concerns around the growth of the use of super-injunctions and the increasing frequency with which High Court proceedings concerning the misuse of private of information were being anonymised.
The Ministry of Justice has subsequently published statistics on privacy injunctions dealt with at hearings at the High Court or Court of Appeal in London for the periods August to December 2011, January to June 2012, July to December 2012, January to June 2013 and, most recently, July to December 2013.
In the period between August 2011 and June 2013, there were 22 applications for interim privacy injunctions (an injunction having been granted in every case, four of which by consent). In the same period, there were nine hearings for final privacy injunctions (with injunctions being granted in all but one case). The last interim super-injunction granted was in 2011 with one final super-injunction granted between January and June 2013.
The statistics for July 2013 to December 2013 show that the number of privacy injunctions dealt with at the Royal Courts of Justice during this period were easily at their lowest since data collection began in 2011. The key highlights are set out below:
Comment
Whilst the statistics are not complete and do not cover every application, I believe that some clear conclusions can be drawn.
It is my view that applications for privacy injunctions have fallen so dramatically in the period from July to December 2013 for the following reasons:
It will be interesting to see the next set of statistics which should be due out soon. Following the recent decline, it would be surprising if there is now a sharp rise in the use of privacy injunctions for the reasons outlined above. However, claimants have been almost entirely successful in obtaining privacy injunctions in the period since data collection began in 2011 and it therefore remains a powerful weapon provided they are aware of the potential pitfalls.
We welcome views and opinions about the issues raised in this blog. Should you require specific advice in relation to personal circumstances, please use the form on the contact page.
James Alleyne
Lucy Bluck
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