New Guidance on Injunctions Issued

Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, has this week launched a pilot scheme to publish information about super-injunctions and anonymised injunctions.

The purpose of the scheme, which runs from 1 August 2011 to 31 July 2012, is to enable the Ministry of Justice to collate and publish, in anonymised form, information about applications for injunctions where section 12 of the Human Rights Act is engaged. Section 12 is intended to safeguard freedom of expression against prior restraint.

The scheme implements the recommendations of the Super-Injunctions Committee, which included the legal director of The Guardian and the chair of the Media Lawyers Association, in response to concerns expressed in Parliament and in the media about the lack of data about such injunctions.  

A new practice direction, approved by the Lord Chancellor, establishes the procedure for collection of this information. The pilot scheme will not apply to proceedings governed by the Family Proceedings Rules 2010, Part 21 (children and protected parties), proceedings related to national security, immigration or asylum.

The Master of the Rolls has also issued practice guidance setting out the recommended practice for applications for interim injunctions which would ban disclosure of information, thereby impacting upon exercise of Article 10 rights to freedom of expression. It also sets out the proper approach to open justice in such cases. Both the practice direction and practice guidance came into force on 1 August.

The guidance would apply to applications under the ECHR, privacy, confidentiality, contempt of court, libel or malicious falsehood, harassment or a Norwich Pharmacal application in support of such applications (third party involvement). The guidance also came into effect on 1 August. The Committee’s report, Practice Direction, Practice Guidance and model order, are set out here.