Qaisar Shaffi, convicted of terrorism offences, today challenged by way of judicial review the Director of High Security’s decision whereby he refused to re-categorise the claimant, by downgrading him to a category B, and also refused to grant him an oral hearing. The primary question concerns whether fairness requires, in all the circumstances, that the claimant should be granted an oral hearing. The Judicial review was allowed. The Director’s decision was not irrational on the information that was available to him. It was, however, not sufficiently clear, so as to enable the claimant to understand what he has to do in order to demonstrate, contrary to the Director’s impression, that the risk he posed had been diminished. The Director was also required to conduct an oral hearing. The case in question demonstrated one of the “few and far between” cases in which an oral hearing could be useful in a recategorisation case in providing further information, in removing misunderstandings, and in attempting to achieve a higher degree of fairness. Dan Squires was involved in this case. Full judgment available below.