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Prerogative—Judicial Review—National Security

ON 22 December 1983 the Minister for the Civil Service decided that new conditions of service would be introduced at Government Communications Headquarters (G.C.H.Q.). Staff would no longer be permitted to belong to national trade unions and would be free only to join a departmental staff association. This change was a response to the history of industrial action at G.C.H.Q. and was made under the authority of an Order-in-Council which empowers the Minister to give instructions for controlling the conduct of the home civil service. The instruction in this case was given without any prior consultation with the civil servants concerned or with the appropriate trade unions which they had been permitted and indeed encouraged to join. The simple question before the House of Lords in Council of Civil Service Unions v. Minister for the Civil Service [1984] 3 W.L.R. 1174 was whether this instruction was bad on the ground of procedural impropriety.