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R v Lincolnshire Health Authority ex p Katie Collins, 6 September 2001, was a judicial review application made by a 35-year-old woman who suffered from learning difficulties. She had lived in a specially adapted unit for adults with learning difficulties since 1990, but in November 2000 the health authority advised Collins that it would no longer provide the service and would meet her needs in the community instead.

Collins applied for judicial review on the basis that there had been a promise of a home for life which had been breached, and relied on the seminal judgement in the Coughlin case, which said that there had to be an overriding public interest before a promise of a home for life could be broken.

Mr Justice Collins found that the information provided to Collins (no relation) in 1990 was not of sufficient certainty to establish a home for life. In any event, he distinguished the Coughlin case (where a home was to be closed for economic reasons), and said that here the health authority had determined that Collins' best interests were that she lived in the community. In any event the decision was in accordance with government policy that if possible people with learning difficulties should be provided services in the community if there are no health reasons for them to be treated in NHS accommodation.

Stephen Cragg

Doughty Street Chambers