Judicial review concerning 2007 tax return could not be anonymised under ‘right to be forgotten’

The High Court has refused an application for an interlocutory order for  judicial review proceedings to be heard in private (in camera) or to be anonymised. The individual's judicial review challenge pertained to the refusal of a statutory body to erase data related to his 2007 tax return, invoking the "right to be forgotten" under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The court found the application to be misconceived, including the invocation of section 156 of the Data Protection Act 2018, as it did not apply to the type of challenge brought by the individual. The court also noted that the individual had not sought to anonymise the initial application for leave to apply for judicial review, and the matter had already appeared in court lists without anonymisation. Furthermore, the court highlighted that the individual's tax affairs had previously been subject to public scrutiny in the Supreme Court, and thus, the application to conduct the review in private or under anonymity was refused.