Phillip Morris successful in Ofsted injunction case

9 Park Place’s Phillip Morris recently successfully represented Ofsted in the High Court in opposing the grant of an injunction being sought by a day nursery provider to prevent the publication of an inspection report into one of its facilities.  The provider had argued that the report, which rated the nursery as “requires improvement”, was flawed in several respects, and an urgent application was lodged for an injunction restraining Ofsted from publishing it. 

Phillip successfully argued on behalf of Ofsted that, in the present case, the public interest in the prompt publication of reports into childcare providers outweighed any commercial interests the provider may have had in preventing damage being caused to it as a result of an unfavourable assessment.  HHJ Keyser Q.C. dismissed the provider’s application and ordered it to pay Ofsted’s costs. 

The case could be seen as of significant importance to public bodies and education providers alike, clarifying as it does the conflict which sometimes arises between issues of freedom of expression and potential adverse consequences of publishing publicly-available inspection reports.

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