Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Procedural impropriety in judicial review: development, scope, and key principles—statutory procedure, right to be heard, legitimate expectation, consultation, reasons, and bias

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Practice notes

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Procedural impropriety as a ground of judicial review

‘Procedural impropriety’ is the third and final ground of judicial review set out by Lord Diplock in the landmark Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service (GCHQ). In that decision, Lord Diplock described this ground as covering a failure to observe the basic norms of natural justice, or to act with procedural fairness towards the person affected by a decision, as well as a failure by an administrative tribunal to comply with procedural rules expressly prescribed in the legislative instrument conferring its jurisdiction, even where no denial of natural justice is involved.

This Practice Note considers the principal features of procedural impropriety as a ground of judicial review:

The evolution of procedural impropriety as a basis for judicial review, which includes:
- the terminology of procedural propriety
- the limits of procedural impropriety as a ground of review
- the justification for procedural propriety
Components of procedural propriety:
- obligation to comply with statutory procedure;
- the ‘common law’ of procedural fairness grounded in the demands of natural justice, including the duty to honour procedural legitimate expectation, duty to

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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