Skip to main content

Jonathan Ames

Legal editor of The Times (joined 2018), covering UK legal affairs, courts and litigation.

Oct 7, 2026

5:44
... explain it to us and our listeners and viewers.
5:46
If I can summarize it as quickly as possible.
5:48
I mean, essentially what judicial review i- the purpose of judicial review is to assess whether a decision made by a public body or a public official, uh, was taken reasonably and within that person or body's power.
6:03
So, in other words, if a, um, public authority said, um, "We're going to build a, a high-rise building over here," and they did it just, you know, randomly without going through the proper processes, that could be judicially reviewed and the decision could be viewed as being ultra vires, in other words, taken outside their powers or unreasonable, the decision was unreasonable.
6:23
I suppose in this case what Andrew must be looking at, potentially, and it's obviously just speculation at this stage, what he might be looking at is a suggestion that the police when they made the application for the search warrant, arguably, and again it's just speculation, arguably went on a fishing exercise.
6:41
Because what is required normally when you go to the Crown Court for a search warrant in relation to investigating a serious criminal offense, is that you have to provide reasonable evidence, reasonable suspicion that an offense has taken place, and you have to provide the court with, um, evidence that there will be evidence at a property that you want to search that is likely to shed light on this case.

14 MINS LATER

20:46
Mm.
20:47
So now we've got the hearing on Thursday, so things will happen fairly quickly now.

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click “Accept All” to consent, or “Decline non-essential” to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.