Aidan Wills

Contact Aidan: aidanwills@matrixlaw.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7404 3447

Contact Aidan's Practice Team (Team M): TeamM@matrixlaw.co.uk

Aidan practises public law and human rights, media and information, discrimination, and employment law. He has appeared in the European Court of Human Rights, Court of Appeal, High Court, Upper Tribunal, County Court, Employment Tribunals, First-tier Tribunal and Magistrates’ Courts.

Public Law and Human Rights

Aidan’s diverse public law and human rights practice includes policing, prisons, education, community care, social welfare, public service closures, and the disclosure and barring regime. Recent cases in which Aidan was instructed include: R (AA) v Metropolitan Police CO/5068/2019 (deployment of police officers in schools), R (Liberal Democrats) v ITV [2020] 4 WLR 4 (televised election debates), R (Elsemait) v SSJ – CO/2608/2018 (a systemic challenge concerning the giving of reasons to segregated prisoners), R (DSD & Ors) v Parole Board [2018] 3 WLR 829 (the Worboys case), and R (Buckingham) v Corby CCG [2018] EWHC 2080 (Admin) (changes to NHS services).

With particular expertise on the use of data by public bodies, Aidan advises regularly on public law challenges to information collection and sharing. He acted for the claimant in the world’s first case concerning the use of live Facial Recognition technology by the police (R (Bridges) v South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058), was involved in a landmark challenge to data sharing between primary healthcare providers and the Home Office (R (MRN) v SSHD and SSH – CO/5259/2017), and acted for one of the applicants in Big Brother Watch & ors v UK [2018] ECHR 722 (a challenge to the UK’s bulk surveillance regimes). Previously, he spent eight years doing legal policy work on national security and human rights, both at the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance and as an independent consultant. He has acted as a consultant to (among others) the European Parliament, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and the UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights. Aidan has published widely on the regulation and oversight of security services and police, public inquiries, access to information and security sector whistleblowing.

Aidan’s advisory work has covered potential challenges to adult social care charging, welfare benefits schemes, council tax schemes, library and hospital closures, and consultation processes concerning changes to public services.

Aidan has experience of making urgent applications for interim relief in judicial review cases. He also has expertise in making applications to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and intervening in proceedings before the ECtHR, on issues ranging from police powers to surveillance, the use of force in immigration enforcement, and libel.

Media and Information Law

Aidan’s busy media and information law practice has included being instructed in high-profile High Court privacy, libel, data protection, harassment and breach of confidence litigation.

With experience of data protection law in both the private and public law spheres, Aidan advises regulary on a wide range of data protection matters including data breaches (including representative claims), data sharing, international data transfers, the data protection implications of new technologies, and the right to erasure.

Aidan is regularly instructed in cases concerning the identification of anonymous publishers (including by way of Norwich Pharmacal relief and self-identification orders); relief against persons unknown; notice-and-takedown procedures; and the liability of internet service providers. Aidan has experience of information law claims with an international element, including the application of the GDPR to non-EU data controllers, claims by foreign claimants against UK-based entities, and section 9 of the Defamation Act 2013.

A pre-publication night lawyer at The Guardian and The Observer, Aidan is a contributing author to Matrix’s Online Publication Claims and the co-author (with Guy Vassall-Adams QC) of an online defamation training course. He has written for the Entertainment Law Review, The Media Lawyer, McNae’s, LexisPSL and The Reporter.

His recent/ongoing matters include:

• Advising on challenges to the publication of reports by regulators.
• Challenges to the inclusion of findings against third parties in judgments.
• A privacy and right to erasure claim against Google LLC.
• Privacy and data protection claims arising from the misuse of information by police, the prison service and local councils.
• Libel and data protection claims concerning “due diligence” services.
• JKL v VBN ([2019] EWHC 2227 (QB) and [2020] EWHC 458 (QB): a privacy injunction; applications for specific and non-party disclosure.
• R (Open Rights Group) v SSHD [2020] 1 WLR 811: a challenge to the immigration exemption in the Data Protection Act 2018 (acted for Liberty, intervening).
• Doyle v Smith [2019] EMLR 15: a libel case concerning the application of the public interest defence to a blogger (led by Guy Vassall-Adams QC).
• Khan v Khan [2018] EWHC 241 (QB): an application for an interim injunction in a harassment claim (led by Hugh Tomlinson QC).
• Bains & ors v Moore & ors: a privacy, confidence and DPA case concerning corporate espionage (led by Hugh Tomlinson QC).
• Tamiz v UK [2018] EMLR 6: on the liability of internet intermediaries (assisted with MLDI’s intervention).
• The NGN Mobile Telephone Voicemail Interception Litigation.

Production orders, search warrants and investigatory powers

Aidan has provided advice and representation on production orders and investigatory powers touching on journalistic and source material. His recent work in this area has included:

• Representing (led by Guy Vassall-Adams QC) media organisations in the Metropolitan Police’s applications for production orders under the Terrorism Act 2000 concerning the so-called “Beatles” cell.
• Advising on resisting applications for production orders under the Charities Act 2011.
• Advising on a challenge to a search warrant.
• Acting for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (led by Gavin Millar QC) in the challenge to the UK’s bulk surveillance regimes before the ECtHR.
• Advising on responses to the Law Commission’s proposals on the reform of official secrecy laws, and the consultation on the Codes of Practice under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.

(Restrictions on) open justice

Aidan acted for the media (led by Gavin Millar QC) in a leading case on open justice, DSD & ors v Parole Board & SSJ [2018] 3 WLR 829, which included a challenge to the Parole Board Rule prohibiting the making public of information about proceedings. He has also advised a media organisation on a challenge to restrictions on open justice in the Court of Appeal. Aidan frequently acts in privacy, data protection and public law cases in which necessary restrictions on open justice are sought.

Education Law

Aidan’s education law work covers judicial review, private law claims under the Equality Act 2010 and HRA 1998, and SEN appeals to the FTT and the Upper Tribunal. His public law expertise includes:

• Academisation and changes to academies (including faith-based designations).
• Alternative educational provision under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.
• The right to education under Article 2 of the First Protocol to the ECHR.
• School admissions.
• Off-rolling.
• School transportation.
• Local authority policies on the format of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
• Disputes as to the local authority responsible for SEN provision.
• Schools financing schemes.
• Issues arising from the deployment of police officers in schools.
• He has appeared in FTT and Upper Tribunal appeals concerning the content of EHCPs, placements, and refusals to assess/ issue. He successfully represented the appellants in the following Upper Tribunal cases:
• JE v Croydon HS/1120/2018: concerning a refusal to assess.
• GK v North Somerset [2018] UKUT 259 (AAC): concerning the making of provision outside term time.

Aidan represents parents challenging permanent exclusions before Independent Review Panels and governing bodies, and has served as a clerk to a governing body’s disciplinary committee. He has also advised on challenges to examination results. In the context of higher education, Aidan has acted for universities and students in claims for breach of contract and under the Equality Act 2010. Prior to his legal career, Aidan worked in both further and higher education institutions (as a student advisor at the City of Bristol College and as a research assistant at the University of Bristol).

Criminal Records, Disclosure and Barring

Aidan has experience of both the public and private law aspects of the disclosure of information arising from criminal investigations and convictions, including:

• Appeals against DBS barring decisions.
• Challenges to the content of Enhanced Criminal Records Certificates and decisions of the Independent Monitor.
• Privacy and data protection claims arising from the publication of information about police investigations and spent convictions.
• Exercising the right to erasure against primary publishers and search engine operators, including through civil claims and complaints to the ICO.
• Advising on a public law challenge to a Notification Order under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
• Securing the amendment of a Notification Order under the Magistrates’ Court’s civil slip rule jurisdiction.

Aidan has contributed chapters on erasure, privacy and data protection to the recently published practitioners’ text Jones & Jones, Criminal Records, Privacy and Criminal Justice System (Bloomsbury, 2019). In 2019 he co- 5 organised an interdisciplinary conference on this topic, bringing together public, criminal and information law specialists.

Prison Law

Aidan’s public law prison work has covered issues ranging from (re)categorisation decisions to segregation, access to faith-related services, close supervision centres, licence conditions, release on Home Detention Curfew, and decisions of the Parole Board. Aidan was instructed (led by Dan Squires QC) in R (Elsemait) v SSJ – CO/2608/2018, a systemic challenge to the failure to give meaningful reasons to segregated prisoners, which led to the SSJ agreeing to provide further training and to require that local Segregation Monitoring and Review Groups monitor the adequacy of the reasons given. He is instructed in an ongoing judicial review concerning the Separation Centre system.

Aidan’s private law prison work has covered challenges to the misuse of a prisoner’s personal data, segregation, restrictions on collective worship, and assaults on prisoners. He also represents prisoners before the Parole Board.

Employment Law

Aidan’s employment law experience includes discrimination, unfair dismissal, redundancy, TUPE transfers, wage-related disputes, whistleblowing and fixed-term employees. He has worked on complex jurisdictional and conflict of laws issues in the employment field. Aidan was junior counsel for the appellant in Moorthy v HMRC [2018] 3 All ER 1062 (CA), a case concerning the taxation of injury to feelings awards. Aidan has also advised on disputes arising from the (mis)use of employees’ personal data and on the use of surveillance/monitoring in the workplace.

Before coming to the Bar, Aidan worked on whistleblower protection in the national security field and was heavily involved in drafting the public interest disclosure principles in the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (Tshwane Principles). He also volunteered at Public Concern at Work (working on whistleblowing policy) and at South West London Law Centres (where he worked on employment cases).

Other Experience and Education

Prior to coming to the Bar, Aidan worked for eight years in the area of national security and human rights as a researcher, trainer and adviser. He has acted as a consultant to various international organisations, as well as publishing and lecturing widely on security sector governance. Aidan played a prominent role in drafting the UN Compilation of good practices on intelligence agencies and their oversight, and the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (Tshwane Principles).

Aidan holds a first-class honours degree in Politics from the University of Nottingham, an M.A. in International Affairs (distinction equivalent) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva), and a Graduate Diploma in Law (Dist.) from BPP University.

Aidan is an ADR Group Accredited Civil & Commercial Mediator and speaks French to an advanced level.

Aidan Wills is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. In order to provide legal services to his clients, including advice and representation services, Aidan needs to collect and hold personal data. This includes his client’s personal data and the personal data of others who feature in the matters in which he is instructed. To read Aidan’s privacy notice in full, please see here.

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