YL v Birmingham City Council
A private care home providing care under a contract with a local authority was not performing a public function under the Human Rights Act.
Facts
YL, aged 84 and suffering from Alzheimer's disease, lived in a care home run by Southern Cross Healthcare, a private company. Birmingham City Council had arranged and partly paid for her place under its statutory duties. After a dispute with YL's family, the care home gave notice to remove her. YL's family argued that the care home was performing functions of a public nature under section 6(3)(b) of the Human Rights Act 1998, so it had to respect her rights under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held, by a majority of three to two, that the care home was not performing functions of a public nature. Lord Mance and Lord Neuberger said that the provision of care and accommodation by a private company on a commercial basis, under a contract with a local authority, was a private function, even though the local authority itself had a public duty to arrange the care. The company was not exercising statutory powers and was not publicly funded in the relevant sense. Lord Bingham and Lady Hale dissented, arguing that providing care for vulnerable people at public expense was a public function. Parliament reversed the decision for such care homes in the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and the issue is now covered by the Care Act 2014.
Related cases on Human Rights Act 1998
- A v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56, [2005] 2 AC 68
- Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley Parochial Church Council v Wallbank [2003] UKHL 37, [2004] 1 AC 546
- Bellinger v Bellinger [2003] UKHL 21, [2003] 2 AC 467
- Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza [2004] UKHL 30, [2004] 2 AC 557
- Hirst v United Kingdom (No 2) (2006) 42 EHRR 41
- Manchester City Council v Pinnock [2010] UKSC 45, [2011] 2 AC 104
- R (AB) v Secretary of State for Justice [2021] UKSC 28
- R (Al-Skeini) v Secretary of State for Defence [2007] UKHL 26, [2008] 1 AC 153
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