Julian Date, leading Joanna Thom, represented the local authority in an application by the Sunday Times concerning the terms of a transparency order in care proceedings.
Previously, the local authority had applied for a care order concerning a young child alleged to have been subjected to fabricated or induced illness (FII) during their hospital stay.
Background to the transparency order application
The Sunday Times journalist had already published 3 articles on what she suggests is an increase in allegations of fabricated or induced illness by hospitals in England against parents.
She applied for a transparency order concerning these particular care proceedings arguing there is a high level of legitimate public interest in this type of reporting.
Issues before the court
The court had to decide whether:
- the NHS trust treating the child could be named by the media, and
- if the use of medical lines in the child’s treatment could be mentioned.
Legal framework concerning transparency in family proceedings
Practice Direction 12R, which came into force in January 2025, broadly creates a presumption in favour of reporting by journalists if the child’s anonymity is preserved.
However, the court also has to balance the child’s Article 8 right to privacy and the Sunday Times’ Article 10 right to freedom of expression.
Judgment
Mrs Justice Lieven found:
- naming the trust should be allowed - given the need for scrutiny of public bodies - specifically because some of the NHS trust’s clinicians had been involved in drafting the FII guidelines
- the journalist could refer to treatment by lines as the risk of jigsaw identification was low because of the large number of seriously ill children treated at the hospital and very high proportion treated via lines
- media coverage of concerns raised by some professionals about the fabricated or induced illness criteria in the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health guidelines and the courts’ approach to severely restricting contact between parents, wider family and the child while legal proceedings were ongoing were of legitimate public interest
Read the judgment in full in A Local Authority v A Mother & Ors [2025] EHC 3498 (Fam).
Paula Diaz wrote the skeleton argument but was unavailable for the hearing.