Ms Rachel Minch:

Leaving aside the materially affected point, prior participation would not appear to be sufficient as it states that an applicant shall be regarded as having a sufficient interest in any ground that relates to matters raised by the applicants in submissions before the decision maker, as well also of having legal capacity. As we read it, you will have sufficient interest to raise grounds in judicial review proceedings, provided they relate to matters raised by the person in submissions before the decision maker. Therefore, prior participation in and of itself would not appear to be sufficient. An applicant would be limited to the grounds in relation to matters he or she had raised. That can raise certain questions because of course you cannot always anticipate the potential difficulties with a decision until it has been made. It potentially also raises the prospect of people feeling they better raise everything, even if it is just touching on points. There might be a concern there that it will lead to quite pro formaor one could say quite defensive submissions to try to-----