Permission to appeal
In the matter of an application by JR65 for Judicial Review (AP) (Northern Ireland) UKSC 2016/0112
On appeal from the Court of Appeal (Northern Ireland)
5 December 2016
Permission for JR65 to appeal was refused in a case relating to the lawfulness of the lifetime ban on males who have had sexual contact with other males donating blood in Northern Ireland.
From the 1980s, men who have had sex with men were permanently deferred from donating blood the UK. In 2011, in the light of new evidence, the lifetime ban was changed in Wales, England and Scotland to a 12-month deferral for men after their last oral or anal sex with another man. The claimant issued judicial review proceedings challenging the Minister's failure to amend the permanent ban in Northern Ireland. The High Court granted the judicial review application, but the Court of Appeal set it aside on appeal. Since the Court of Appeal's decision, the Minister has adopted a policy of 12-month deferral, which was implemented on 1 September 2016.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal and the Court of Appeal judgment will therefore stand:
The substantive text of the Supreme Court's Order reads:
"The Court ordered that permission to appeal be refused because the application does not raise an arguable point of law if general public importance which ought to be considered by the Supreme Court at this time bearing in mind that the case has already been the subject of judicial decision and reviewed on appeal. The matter is now academic."