Administrative Law or Judicial Review Commercial Law Human Rights Planning
Biography
Charlie Banner KC was called to the Bar of England & Wales in 2004 and to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2010. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2019 at the age of 38. Since 2024 he has been a Working Peer in the House of Lords, in which capacity he sits as a legislator in the upper house of the UK Parliament. He also has significant judicial experience, having sat part-time as a Justice of the AstanaInternational Finance Centre Court in Kazakhstan from 2019 until 2025.
He has a heavyweight practice principally focused on (i) planning & environmental law, (ii) public law, government contracts, public procurement and subsidy control and (iii) commercial disputes, especially in the context of development, infrastructure, construction, energy & real estate. He also has considerable experience of human rights and EU law in these contexts.
He is recommended as a leading silk in a total of 8 practice areas by Chambers & Partners (Band 1 for planning) and Legal 500. He was voted the No 1 planning KC in Great Britain in the 2025 edition of Planning Magazine’s annual Planning Legal Survey. He has been the recipient of multiple legal industry awards. In April 2024, he was featured as The Times’s Lawyer of the Week. He received the “Highly Commended” accolade in the “Barrister of the Year” category at The Lawyer Awards 2025.
His advocacy experience includes over 200 reported cases, including 19 appeals in the UK Supreme Court (making him one of the top 10 currently practising barristers by number of appearances in the Supreme Court since its opening in 2009). He has appeared in 13 cases before the EU Courts (Court of Justice and General Court), 9 cases before the UNECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, 4 cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as UK Parliamentary Select Committee hearings. He has also appeared in over 250 planning and environmental inquiries/examinations, as well as in many of the leading planning judicial review cases in Northern Ireland in the last decade.
In February 2024, he was appointed by the Prime Minister to undertake an Independent Review of Legal Challenges to Nationally Significant Infrastructure projects. The Banner Review’s report was published in October 2024 (LordBanner KC review proposes roadmap to speed up delivery of nationalinfrastructure - GOV.UK). Its recommendations are being taken forward in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill 2025.
Projects he has worked on include London Heathrow Airport expansion, High Speed Two, London Stansted Airport expansion, the North-South Ireland Interconnector, Arc21 Energy From Waste, Casement Park Stadium, the Abingdon Reservoir, the Elizabeth Line (aka Crossrail), East Anglia Green (180km of new pylons), and the Islandmagee Undersea Gas Storage Project.
Qualifications
BA(Hons) & MA(Oxon), University of Oxford
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Experience
High Court cases and Court of Appeal cases
Islandmagee Energy Limited’s Application for Judicial Review[2024] NIKB – on whether the Islandmagee Undersea Gas Storage Project requires ‘Consent to Construct’ from the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator.
River Ridge Recycling (Portadown) Ltd v. Arc 21 & Regen Waste Ltd [2024] NIKB 19 – on the meaning of ‘manifest error’ in the public procurement context and the principles applicable to disclosure/discovery of documents in procurement proceedings.
River Ridge Recycling (Portadown) Ltd v. Arc 21 [2023] NIKB 86 – acting for the defendant in litigation concerning a challenge to the award of a contract to Regen Waste Ltd for the provision of services for the haulage, treatment, recovery and disposal of Belfast’s municipal waste. The plaintiff seeks £50m in damages. Successfully resisted an application for an interim injunction (the contract having been entered into without a standstill period pursuant to the Dynamic Purchasing System Procedure) in June 2023;
Successful judicial review application concerning the Arc 21 Energy From Waste Project in Co. Antrim – a £240m strategic Energy From Waste facility. The case raised significant constitutional, public law, environmental law and planning law issues. The defendant consented to judgment shortly before trial (2022-2023).
Mooreland and Owenvarragh Residents’ Association’s application for Judicial Review[2022] NIQB 40 – acted for the Department for Communities, successfully defending a judicial review challenge to the grant of a new GAA stadium at Casement Park, Belfast, which was brought on constitutional, EIA, habitats and planning law grounds.
Minister for Infrastructure v. Safe Electricity A&T Ltd [2022] NICA 61 – judicial review challenge to the Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure’s grant of planning permission for the North-South Interconnector – Northern Ireland Electricity’s proposed 400kv strategic interconnector between Tyrone in Northern Ireland and Cavan in the Republic of Ireland, regarded as Northern Ireland’s most significant energy infrastructure project to date. A test case concerning the power-sharing arrangements under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 as amended, and specifically whether and if so in what circumstances the Minister for Infrastructure is required to refer major planning decisions to the Executive Committee. Previously acted for the Department for Infrastructure concerning the project for several years since 2013, including at a high profile public inquiry and in various High Court proceedings.
Buttercrane Centre Limited’s Application for Judicial Review[2017] NIQB: challenge to planning permission for the extension of The Quays retail centre in Newry, concerning the compatibility with Article 6 ECHR of the ‘promptness’ requirement for JR.
Kelvin Properties Limited’s Application for Judicial Review[2016] NIQB: challenge to the Planning Appeal Commission’s refusal of planning permission for a retail development in Coleraine (settled following leave hearing).
Darren Crowe’s Application for Judicial Review[2016] NIQB: challenge to the Planning Appeal Commission’s refusal of planning permission for an onshore wind turbine development on the grounds of potential impact on species protected under the EU Habitats Directive (settled following leave hearing).
Newry Chamber of Commerce’s Application for Judicial Review[2015] NIQB 65: challenge to planning permission for a large scale retail-led redevelopment, raising issues under the Habitats Directive, EIA Directive and the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Doyle’s Application for Judicial Review[2014] NIQB 82: challenge to the Planning Appeal Commission’s grant of permission for a key element of the University of Ulster’s £300m regeneration scheme in North Belfast, concerning standing for JR in the planning context.
Department of Environment’s Application for Judicial Review[2014] NIQB 4: challenge to Planning Appeal Commission’s grant of permission for a large-scale airport car-park in the countryside, concerning the relationship between the different applicable Planning Policy Statements.
Planning inquiries and planning appeal hearings
Appearing for the Department for Infrastructure at the public inquiry into the Northern Ireland element of the proposed North-South Ireland Electricity Interconnector, Northern Ireland’s largest infrastructure project in recent years.
Acting for Derry and Strabane District Council at an inquiry into a proposed 1,400 dwelling urban extension on the edge of Derry City.
Publications
The Aarhus Convention - A Guide for UK Lawyers (Hart Publishing, 2015)