UK loses another prisoner voting case – but no damages awarded
The United Kingdom has lost another case at the European Court of Human Rights on the issue of prisoners' voting rights – but no damages or legal costs have been awarded to the successful applicants.
In a three-judge committee judgment in the case of McHugh and others, the court held that there had been a violation of article 3 of Protocol 1 to the Convention in respect of 1,015 prisoners who, as an automatic consequence of their convictions and sentences of imprisonment, were unable to vote in elections between 2009 and 2011. The court ruled that the case was identical to other prisoner voting cases in which a breach of the right to vote had been found, and the relevant legislation had not yet been amended.
However, as in previous judgments, the court held that the finding of a violation constituted sufficient just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicants. It therefore declined to award any compensation. It also rejected the applicants’ claim for legal costs, as it did not consider that legal assistance
was required to lodge an application, for the reasons given in the earlier case of Firth and others, this being a follow-up case.