The High Court has ruled that the Parole Board should pay Damien Donnan’s legal costs after a judicial review challenge concerning the preparation of a release plan became moot.
The underlying dispute followed the Board’s September 2024 decision refusing Mr Donnan parole. It said he would be eligible again in November 2025 and that a detailed advance release plan would be required for his next application.
The difficulty concerned the legal status of that plan. The Board referred both to directing its preparation under section 13 of the Parole Act 2019 and to a non-binding recommendation under section 30.
Mr Donnan’s judicial review case argued that once the Board decided to direct a report under section 13, its preparation became mandatory rather than discretionary.
His papers were filed in December 2024. When the leave application came before the High Court in February 2025, Ms Justice Gearty directed his solicitors to write to the Board identifying the apparent error and adjourned the application to allow the issue to be addressed.
In March, the Board’s solicitors confirmed that if Mr Donnan made his next parole application, the Board would immediately issue a section 13 direction for a detailed advance release plan. Mr Donnan confirmed that he intended to apply and accepted that approach. The judicial review therefore became moot without the court deciding the substantive challenge.
The remaining dispute concerned who should pay the legal costs.
Mr Justice Conleth Bradley held that the Board’s March confirmation was the event which made the proceedings moot. It was not caused by an external development but was a unilateral step taken directly in response to the judicial review proceedings.
Applying the established rules for costs in moot cases, the judge held that the default position was therefore that the Board should pay.
Mr Donnan was awarded the costs of the leave application, any reserved costs and the costs of the costs application itself, without reduction. The judgment did not overturn the September 2024 refusal of parole.