“18. Petrol is highly flammable. Ignition can occur not just where an ignition source is brought into contact with the fuel itself, but also where there is a spark (for example from static electricity or the use of a device powered by electricity) in the vicinity of invisible vapour in the surrounding atmosphere. Such vapour does not disperse easily and can travel long distances. There is therefore close regulation… 19. The use of mobile telephones on the forecourt (outside a vehicle) is prohibited for that reason. The evidence shows that at the protests on28 April 2022 protestors used mobile phones on the forecourts to photograph and film their activities. Further, as regards the use of hammers to damage pumps, Mr Austin says: “Breaking the pump screens with any implement could cause a spark and in turn potentially harm anyone in the vicinity. The severity of any vapour cloud ignition could be catastrophic and cause multiple fatalities. Unfortunately, Shell Group has tragically lost several service station employees in Pakistan in the last year when vapour clouds have been ignited during routine operations.”
“2…the Defendants must not do any of the acts listed in paragraph 3 of this Order in express or implied agreement with any other person, and with the intention of disrupting the sale or supply of fuel to or from a Shell Petrol Station. 3. The acts referred to in paragraph 2 of this order are: 3.1. blocking or impeding access to any pedestrian or vehicular entrance to a Shell Petrol Station or to a building within the Shell Petrol Station; 3.2. causing damage to any part of a Shell Petrol Station or to any equipment or infrastructure (including but not limited to fuel pumps) upon it; 3.3. operating or disabling any switch or other device in or on a Shell Petrol Station so as to interrupt the supply of fuel from that Shell Petrol Station, or from one of its fuel pumps, or so as to prevent the emergency interruption of the supply of fuel at the Shell Petrol Station; 3.4. affixing or locking themselves, or any object or person, to any part of a Shell Petrol Station, or to any other person or object on or in a Shell Petrol Station; 3.5. erecting any structure in, on or against any part of a Shell Petrol Station; 3.6. spraying, painting, pouring, depositing or writing any substance on to any part of a Shell Petrol Station. 3.7. encouraging or assisting any other person do any of the acts referred to in sub-paragraphs 3.1 to 3.6.”
“21. Some of the conduct referred to in paragraph 3 is, in isolation, potentially innocuous (“depositing… any substance on… any part of a Shell Petrol Station” would, literally, cover the disposal of a sweet wrapper in a rubbish bin). The injunction does not prohibit such conduct. The structure is important. The injunction only applies to the defendants. The defendants are those who are “damaging, and/or blocking the use of or access to any Shell petrol station in England and Wales, or to any equipment or infrastructure upon it, by express or implied agreement with others, with the intention of disrupting the sale or supply of fuel to or from the said station.”
“It is clear from its terms…thatCPR 40.9 does not empower the court to set aside a judgment or order wherever it might think that appropriate. It is a precondition that the applicant is ‘directly affected’ by the judgment or order. That the power should not be untrammelled makes obvious sense. In general, a defendant to a claim should be left to decide for himself whether to defend it. Further, it could hardly be appropriate to allow a third party to apply to have a judgment set aside unless he would then be in a position either to defend the claim on the defendant's behalf or to put forward a defence of his own.”
“…the balance of convenience favours the grant of injunctive relief. If an injunction is not granted, then there is a risk of substantial damage to the claimant’s legal rights which might not be capable of remedy. Conversely, it is open to the defendants (or anybody else that is affected by the injunction) at any point to apply to vary or set aside the order. Further, although the injunction has a wide effect, there are both temporal and geographical restrictions.”
“67. Nothing in the injunction explicitly restrains publication of anything. Nor does it have that effect. The defendants can publish anything they wish without breaching the injunction. The activities that the injunction restrains do not include publication. It does not, for example, restrain the publication of photographs and videos of the protests that have already taken place. Nor does it prevent anyone from, for example, chanting anything, or from displaying any message on any placard or from placing any material on any website or social media site. 68. Lord Nicholls explained the origin of section 12(3) in Cream Holdings Limited v Banerjee[2004] UKHL 44 [2005] 1 AC 253 (at [15]). There was concern that the incorporation ofarticle 8 ECHR into domestic law might result in the courts readily granting interim applications to restrain the publication by newspapers (or others) of material that interferes with privacy rights. Parliament enacted section 12(3) to address that concern, by setting a high threshold for the grant of an interim injunction in such a case. It codifies the prior restraint principle that previously operated at common law. The policy motivation that gave rise to section 12(3) has no application here. 69. The word “publication” does not have an unduly narrow meaning so as to apply only to commercial publications: “publication does not mean commercial publication, but communication to a reader or hearer other than the claimant” – Lachaux v Independent Print Limited[2019] UKSC 27 ;[2020] AC 612 per Lord Sumption at [18]. Lord Sumption's observation was made in the context of defamation, but Parliament legislated against this well-established backdrop. Section 12(3) should be applied accordingly so that “publication” covers “any form of communication”: Birmingham City Council v Asfar[2019] EWHC 1560 (QB) per Warby J at [60]. 70. The meaning set out by Lord Sumption in Lachaux is sufficient to achieve the underlying policy intention. There is therefore no good reason for giving the word “publication” an artificially broad meaning so as to cover (for example) demonstrative acts of trespass in the course of a protest. Such acts are intended to publicise the protestor’s views, but they do not amount to a publication. 71. Further, the wording of section 12 itself indicates that the word “publication” has a narrower reach than the term “freedom of expression”
“But I would go further. I am satisfied that it would be quite wrong to treat the word “publication” in s 12(3) as having a limited meaning, restricted for example (as Mr Manning’s submission seemed to imply) to commercial publication. It is hard to see how that such an approach could be rationally defended. It would give commercial publishers preferential treatment compared to other defendants, such as individuals communicating for private purposes, on social media. As everybody knows, some social media accounts have larger readerships than some paid-for newspapers. But there is a more fundamental point. In the law of defamation, “publication does not mean commercial publication, but communication to a reader or hearer other than the claimant”: Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd[2019] UKSC 27 [18] (Lord Sumption). This is generally true of the torts associated with the communication of information, sometimes known as “publication torts”, and the related law (see the discussion in Aitken v DPP[2015] EWHC 1079 (Admin) [2016] 1 WLR 297 [41-62]). Parliament must be taken to have legislated against this well-established background. Section 12(3) applies to any application for prior restraint of any form of communication that falls withinArticle 10 of the Convention . This is appropriately reflected in the language of the Practice Guidance, quoted above.”
“any form of communication that falls withinArticle 10 of the Convention ”
“Alternative service is necessary for the relief to be effective. Moreover… the Defendants already have a great deal of constructive knowledge that the [injunctions] may well be extended: the extent and disruptive nature of the JSO protests since March 2022 (and the Insulate Britain protests which began in September 2021); the multiple civil and committal proceedings brought in response to those protests by National Highways Limited, TfL, local authorities and energy companies and the frequent service of documents on defendants within those proceedings including multiple interim injunctions; the extensive media and social media coverage of the protests, their impact, and of the legal proceedings brought in response; the large extent to which, in order to organise protests and support each other, JSO protesters are in communication with each other both horizontally between members and vertically by JSO through statements, videos etc. shared through its website and social media. These are not activities that single individuals undertake of their own volition. In my judgment, in the perhaps unusual circumstances of this case, it is very unlikely, perhaps vanishingly unlikely, that anyone who is minded to take part in the JSO protests…is unaware that injunctive relief has been granted by the courts.”
“(1) The name and address of the people concerned are likely to support the case of the claimant or adversely affect the case of one of the other parties to the proceedings. Being able to identify who the people are who have been acting in the way complained of is a central facet of the interim relief that the court has already granted. Evidence of breach will go to upholding the […] injunction. (2) Disclosure is necessary in order to dispose fairly of the claim or to save costs, because (a) without the names and addresses the claimant cannot enforce the […] injunction without significant impediments; and (b) the claimant needs the names and addresses in order to make good an undertaking it has given to the court to add defendants as named defendants wherever possible. (3) Identifying the protesters will allow them to defend their position in the proceedings and it increases the fairness of the proceedings to have named defendants as far as possible. (4) The Metropolitan Police have stated to the claimant that it will only disclose the requested information pursuant to a court order and they do not oppose the grant of the making of that order. (5) The disruption to the public and the risks involved mean that it is proportionate to order third party disclosure. (6) It is much more desirable for the evidence gathering to be undertaken by the police, rather than for third parties such as inquiry agents to interfere during the demonstrations in order to obtain such evidence.”