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ARTICLE · 03 MAY 2006

Damage Needed for Civil (or uncivil) Misconduct in Public Office

Pinsent Masons
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Do you have to prove damage to win a civil action for misconduct in public office? That was what the House of Lords had to grapple with on 29 March 2006 in Watkins v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Others [2006] UKHL 17.

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
Nicholas Dobson
Nicholas Dobson

Do you have to prove damage to win a civil action for misconduct in public office? That was what the House of Lords had to grapple with on 29 March 2006 in Watkins v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Others [2006] UKHL 17.

It's now clear that the tort of misconduct in public office has the following ingredients:

  1. The defendant must be a public officer

  2. There has been an exercise of power as a public officer

  3. The state of mind of the defendant i.e. there must be either conduct specifically intended to injure a person or person or a public officer has acted knowing that he has no power to do the act complained of and that the act will probably cause injury (see Lord Steyn in Three Rivers District Council and Others v Governor and Company of the Bank of England (No 3) [2003] 2 AC 1).

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