R (Daly) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2001] UKHL 26
Ratio Decidendi
Proportionality is a more structured and rigorous test than Wednesbury unreasonableness. Where Convention rights are at stake, the court must conduct a proportionality analysis rather than simply asking whether the decision was irrational.
Facts
A prison policy required prisoners to be absent from their cells during searches, during which legally privileged correspondence could be examined.
Judgment Summary
The House of Lords held the blanket policy was unlawful as a disproportionate interference with the right to legal professional privilege. Lord Steyn explained the difference between Wednesbury and proportionality review.
Key Quotes
"The intensity of review is somewhat greater under the proportionality approach... the proportionality test may go further than the traditional grounds of review."
— Lord Steyn
Subsequent Treatment
Key authority on the distinction between Wednesbury and proportionality review.