Schedule 7 Stop and Search: AF(No.3) Disclosure Standard Does Not Apply in Ansari Closed Material Judicial Review

This morning, Mr Justice Chamberlain handed down judgment in R (Ansari) v Chief Constable of North Wales Police [2026] EWHC 472 (Admin) determining that the AF(No3) disclosure standard – established in Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF (No.3) [2009] UKHL 28 – did not apply to this judicial review challenge to a Schedule 7 port stop. AF(No3) disclosure requires that a party subject to closed proceedings receive sufficient disclosure to enable him to disprove the case, even if doing so would be damaging to national security.

The case raised novel and consequential questions about the reach of the AF(No.3) principle beyond its original statutory context in control order cases and its application to judicial review claims involving closed material. Mr Justice Chamberlain reasoned that whether AF(No.3) applies depends predominantly on the nature of the right in issue. The high disclosure standard had previously been applied in cases involving challenges to detention or serious restrictions on individual liberty; it did not apply here because the Schedule 7 stop and seizure did not involve any allegation against the Claimant and did not affect his substantive legal position. The judgment will be of considerable interest to practitioners in the fields of national security law, police law, and public law more broadly.

The Claimant is an experienced solicitor specialising in national security and human rights work whose clients include Hamas. He challenges decisions by officers of the North Wales Police to question and detain him and to download and inspect the contents of his mobile phone pursuant to Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000. He contends that most of the downloaded material is confidential and privileged.

At an earlier hearing in October 2025 [2025] EWHC 3330 (Admin), Mr Justice Chamberlain refused the Claimant’s application for interim relief which had sought to prevent the Chief Constable and her officers from accessing and searching the downloaded phone content. The court found that the public interest in allowing the police to perform their statutory functions firmly outweighed the small risk that privileged material might be passed to the examining officer, having regard to the safeguards in place. That earlier hearing also saw the court make a declaration under section 6 of the Justice and Security Act 2013, enabling the case to proceed with a closed material procedure, and the appointment of a Special Advocate. The court directed a rolled-up hearing, to take place following completion of the disclosure process. A live issue arising from that disclosure process was whether the AF(No.3) disclosure standard applied.

Georgina Wolfe appeared on behalf of the Chief Constable of North Wales Police in R (Ansari) v Chief Constable of North Wales Police (and in previous hearings: [2025] EWHC 2764 (Admin) and [2025] EWHC 3330 (Admin)). At the most recent hearing, Georgina was led by Matthew Butt KC.

The proceedings are ongoing, with the rolled-up hearing listed in May.