Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Court of Appeal reaffirms Tindall: no police duty for third-party harm absent assumed responsibility or interference; ‘exceptional circumstances’ rejected; Article 3 investigative duty not triggered (England and Wales)

Published on: 29 January 2025

Published by a LexisNexis PI & Clinical Negligence expert

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Article summary

(Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police v Woodcock, HD and others (by their respective litigation friends) v Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police) [2025] EWCA Civ 13

What are the practical implications of this case?

It reminds practitioners that:

The Tindall principles are now settled law: no duty of care is owed where the police merely withhold a benefit from an individual, or confer none at all. The decisive question is whether police conduct left the position worse in practical terms. Practitioners should, therefore, test the counterfactual, on the facts: what would have unfolded had the police not been involved?
The ‘assumption of responsibility’ and ‘interference’ routes are illustrations of this core divide. Where officers take responsibility for a person, or stop a third party from giving aid, they are, by definition, plainly worsening matters.
It is exceptionally hard to identify ‘exceptional circumstances’ in which a duty arises outside that structure, if any. Care is needed to ensure that the ‘exceptional circumstances’ label does not introduce inconsistency and uncertainty, or unpredictability.
Do not conflate other aspects of the tort (for example breach or foreseeability of harm) with the need to prove the duty’s existence. Such elements cannot be used at all...

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