R (on the application of Hillingdon London Borough Council and others) v Secretary of State for Transport (Transport for London, interested party) [2010] EWHC 626 (Admin), [2010] All ER (D) 253 (Mar)
In January 2009, the secretary of state made a statement to the House of Commons announcing his conclusions following the consultation. It was said that the government remained convinced that additional capacity at Heathrow was “critical to [the UK’s] long-term economic prosperity” and that the same would be subject to a new “green-slots” principle, which was concerned with incentivising the use of “the most modern aircraft”, in order to reduce carbon emissions and provide benefits for air quality and noise. A challenge to that statement by way of judicial review was allowed. The court ruled that the decision was not immune from challenge by way of judicial review.
The scope of the review, however, was limited by two factors: (i) the ‘high level’ character of the policy judgments that were made; and (ii) the preliminary nature of the decision. In that light, the administrative court could not intervene if the decision was
