R v HM Treasury, ex parte Smedley [1985] 1 QB 657

• Plaintiff sought JR of a treasury (Defendant) decision to pay money out of a consolidated fund to meet EC obligations without consulting parliament.

• Plaintiff was applying in his own interest and that of all taxpayers and voters.

• The court held that Plaintiff had standing but the challenge failed on its merits. 

Slade LJ

there has been what Lord Roskill [in National Federation of the Self Employed] described at as a "change in legal policy," which has in recent years greatly relaxed the rules as to locus standi.

Lord Diplock

• Referred to a:

Virtual abandonment" of the former restrictive rules as to the locus standi of persons seeking prerogative orders against authorities exercising governmental powers. If the court had taken the view that [the] application was of a frivolous nature, the wide discretion given it by R.S.C., Ord. 53 would have enabled it to dispose of it appropriately.

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