Viridor Waste Management and others v HMRC

In Viridor Waste Management and others v HMRC [2016] EWHC 2502 (13 October 2016) the High Court found that although HMRC had successfully defended an application for judicial review it was not entitled to recover the entirety of its costs from the taxpayer.

The High Court had dismissed the application for judicial review (R (Veolia ES Landfill) v HMRC [2016] EWHC 1880 (Admin)) which had been brought by several companies of the Viridor Group. This was an application for costs.

The judicial review claim had failed. HMRC was therefore the successful party and asked that Viridor pay its costs in accordance with the general rule (CPR r 44.2(2)(a)). Viridor contended however that this was an appropriate case for the court to make a different order under CPR 44.2(2)(b). The court accepted that although it was successful in the result in...