20 March 2015
R (on the application of Black) v Secretary of State for Justice [2015] EWHC 528 (Admin), [2015] All ER (D) 60 (Mar)
The claimant was a non-smoker serving a sentence of indeterminate detention for public protection. He sought judicial review of the defendant secretary of state’s refusal to allow the NHS Smoke-Free Compliance Line to be put on the prison phone system for all prisoners. The administrative court, in allowing the application, held that the secretary of state had proceeded on an erroneous understanding of the law, as Ch 1 of Pt 1 of the Health Act 2006, which banned smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces, applied to prisons and, in particular, to state prisons for which the Crown was responsible.
