RECORDINGS OF COURT HEARINGS AND THE CASE OF DF CHILDREN

That this House notes that Appeal B4/2011/2952 [2012] EWCA CIV 684 DF (Children) was heard on 2 May 2012 with an oral judgment reported as allowing the appeal; further notes that the written judgment took almost two months to obtain and indicated that the appeal was not allowed; further notesthat it took three months to get a refusal to the request to listen to the recording of the hearing; further notes that it took an additional two months and a reference to the Information Commissioner to get reasons for this refusal; further notes that those reasons, in arguing that a recording of a hearing held in open court runs the risk of breaching client lawyer privilege, are absurd; further notes that the Judicial Executive Board is refusing to provide copies of the minutes relating to this decision; and calls for access to the original recording of the appeal of DF Children to be permitted in order to determine the cause of the discrepancy between original reports of the oral judgment and the written transcript of the judgment.