Cost ruling relating to application to take child to Italy for life-sustaining treatment

Raqeeb v Barts Health NHS Trust (Costs) [2019] EWHC 3320 (Admin); [2020] Med LR Plus 3

Following a case that attracted the attention of the media in 2019, a child has recently been awarded 80% of her costs incurred in bringing a claim for judicial review of the decision of an NHS trust to refuse to permit her to travel abroad to receive life-sustaining treatment. The general rule that the unsuccessful party should pay the costs of the successful party applied. However, her parents were not entitled to recover the costs of proceedings brought by the trust under the Children Act 1989. The trust had no option but to make an application for the best interests of their child to be determined by the court where there was a disagreement between the parents and clinicians treating her.