The Court of Appeal has recently provided welcome guidance on the standards of procedural fairness applicable to disciplinary tribunals in sport and those matters the courts should take into account before setting aside the decisions of such tribunals on procedural grounds.
In Flaherty v NGRC, the Court of Appeal over-turned the High Court’s ruling that an inquiry held by the stewards of the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC), which regulates greyhound racing in Great Britain, had been conducted in a procedurally unfair manner. The case concerned a random drugs test on a greyhound owned and trained by the claimant, Mr Tom Flaherty, during a qualifying round for the Derby at Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium (WGS) in 2002. The urine sample from the greyhound was found to contain hexamine, a drug for the treatment of urinary tract infections, effectively prohibited by the NGRC Rules of Racing.
