Cooper (Appellant) v Natural England (Respondent)

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2025/0025

Parties

Appellant(s)

Andrew Cooper

Respondent(s)

Natural England

Issue

(1) Whether the fields on the Appellant’s farm were uncultivated when the Respondent sought an injunction to prevent the Appellant from ploughing the fields and damaging the archaeological heritage they contained? (2) Whether the Respondent was entitled to require the Appellant to provide further information before determining his application for consent to plough the fields? (3) Whether the grant of the injunction preventing the Appellant from ploughing the fields was a breach of his human rights, in particular articles 6, 7 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the “ECHR”) and article 1 of the First Protocol of the ECHR?

Facts

The Appellant, Mr Cooper, is a tenant farmer on land owned by the National Trust. The Respondent, Natural England, is the regulator under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No. 2) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No. 2522) (the “2006 Regulations”). In May 2012, Mr Cooper wished to farm nine of his fields, which had previously been uncultivated. He applied to Natural England under the 2006 Regulations for a screening decision to determine whether this was likely to have significant effects on the environment and would therefore require Natural England’s consent. On 20 August 2012, Natural England issued its screening decision. This stated that its consent was required under regulation 9 of the 2006 Regulations as the cultivation of the fields was likely to have significant effects on the environment. In particular, the fields contained important archaeological heritage which could be harmed, namely flint tools dating from the Mesolithic period and structures from World War II. On 27 September 2012, Natural England told Mr Cooper that before it could provide consent he needed to provide further information, in the form of a survey detailing the possible impact on the archaeological heritage. Mr Cooper did not provide the survey and began to plough the fields. Between 2014 and 2020, Natural England issued statutory notices attempting to prevent Mr Cooper from ploughing the fields, but he continued do so. On 6 April 2021, Mr Cooper was convicted for contravening a statutory notice and sentenced to a fine. After the conviction, in June 2021, Mr Cooper continued to plough the fields. On 21 April 2023, Natural England applied for an injunction to restrain Mr Cooper from ploughing the fields without their consent. The High Court held that Natural England did not have standing to seek an injunction as it was not incidental to its functions and refused to grant one. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that Natural England did have the required standing and granted the injunction. Mr Cooper now appeals to the Supreme Court.

Date of issue

12 February 2025

Case origin

PTA

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