The challenge, which was dismissed on 23 October, (Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural
Aff airs [2008] EWHC 2518 (Admin)-RRB-, interestingly illuminates both the possibilities and the limitations of judicial review as a mechanism for holding the government to particular policy aims.
Need for clarification Oliver Heald MP, a former shadow secretary of state for constitutional
aff airs, has stated that there is a case for a law which clarifi es the rights of those who have lived together for a long period of time, or for those who have children, but two years — the length of time proposed by the Law Commission — seems a ludicrously short period of time for anyone to acquire these rights.