R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex p Doody
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte Doody [1994] 1 AC 531 was an important English public law case concerning applications for judicial review made by four prisoners serving mandatory life sentences. The Home Secretary refused to release the convict after serving his minimum term, but gave no reason for the decision.
Decision
Lord Mustil judged that the Home Secretary must give reasons for their decision. He argued that decisions made using a statutory power must be reached fairly, because all statutory powers are granted with the implicit assumption that they will be wielded fairly.
As a result, he concluded it will often be necessary to allow a person to make representations, and therefore to allow them to know what they are responding to, they must be permitted to hear the reason they are having to make the representations at all.[1]