R (S) v YP School
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Laws,LORD JUSTICE LAWS,LORD JUSTICE MUMMERY,LORD JUSTICE SIMON BROWN |
| Judgment Date | 11 July 2003 |
| Neutral Citation | [2003] EWCA Civ 1306 |
| Docket Number | C3/03/0045 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 11 July 2003 |
[2003] EWCA Civ 1306
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT LIST
(MR JUSTICE MAURICE KAY)
Lord Justice Simon Brown (Vice President of the Court of Appeal, Civil Division)
Lord Justice Mummery
Lord Justice Laws
C3/03/0045
The parties did not attend.
LORD JUSTICE SIMON BROWN: I will ask Lord Justice Laws to give the first judgment.
This is an appeal brought with permission granted by Hale LJ against a decision of Maurice Kay J given in the Administrative Court sitting at Cardiff on 13 December 2002. By that decision Maurice Kay J dismissed an application for judicial review brought in relation to a decision to exclude a schoolboy, S, from his school for a period of ten days, effectively for stealing a guitar from the school. The defendants were the head teacher and the board of governors of the school. The defendants, the respondents to the appeal, concede that the appeal should succeed. I consider that concession to be entirely proper and will accordingly merely give my reasons for allowing the appeal in outline form.
The point which is conceded concerns the standard of proof applicable to an accusation of theft arising in the context of school discipline. The learned judge below said at paragraph 19 of his judgment:
"The appropriate standard, in the sense of the standard required by the law, is less than the criminal standard and is properly described as being the 'balance of probabilities', albeit that a gloss is placed upon that language by the authorities in relation to an allegation of seriousness as this one was."
The respondents however accept, in light of the decision of their Lordship's House in R (On the app of McCann) v Manchester Crown Court [2003] 1 AC 787 which was concerned with anti-social behaviour orders made under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, that the appropriate standard is the criminal one. Since the course of the disciplinary process which led to this child's exclusion was not the process of a criminal court as such, it might be possible, without offence to their Lordships' approach in McCann, to formulate the standard of proof in terms of probability while making it plain that, given that what is in effect a criminal offence is involved, the degree of probability required equates with the criminal standard of proof.
Such a refinement of...
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