One Search Direct Holdings Ltd (formerly SPH Holdings Ltd) (trading as OneSearch Direct) v York City Council [2010] EWHC 590 (Admin), [2010] All ER (D) 198 (Mar)
Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) Hickinbottom J 19 Mar 2010
The policy of York City Council not to allow private search companies (PSCs) access to raw data necessary for compiling information for home information packs (HIPS), but rather to purchase that information from the authority itself, is not unlawful.
Michael Fordham QC and Iain Steele (instructed by Walker Morris) for the claimant. Jason Coppel (instructed by Dickinson Dees LLP) for the authority.
The claimant was a private search company (PSC) which carried on business in the jurisdiction of the defendant local authority. It compiled search reports from data held by the authority which it then sold for inclusion in HIPs. PSCs acted in competition with authorities in that respect. In April 2009, the authority published a policy purportedly in accordance with the Local Authority Property Search Services—Costing and Charging Guidance and the Local Authorities (England) (Charges for Property Searches) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/3248) concerning access to
