Referral made to CJEU on domestic abuse question

The High Court is to request a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union on the issue of whether and to what extent the Withdrawal Agreement applies to a parent who entered the UK as a dependant family member of her adult son after the transition period and who then left the household due to domestic abuse. The case is R (BZ) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 1814 (Admin).

The case involves two judicial reviews, one against the the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to refuse the claimant’s claim for universal credit. The second is a challenge to the exclusion of certain family members from the the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession and Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse, including parents such as the applicant.

It appears that the parties did not notify the Independent Monitoring Authority that a point concerning the Withdrawal Agreement had arisen when they should have but once they did the Authority also filed submissions accepting that a referral to the CJEU was appropriate.

The question to be referred to the CJEU is:

Does Article 17(2) of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (‘the Withdrawal Agreement’) apply to a person who, at the end of the transition period, was a dependent direct relative in the ascending line of a Union citizen and accordingly a ‘family member’ of a Union Citizen as defined in point (2)(d) of Article 2 of Directive 2004/38/EC but resided outside the host State, and who later entered the host state as a dependant, thereby falling within the personal scope provision in Article 10(1)(e)(ii) of the Withdrawal Agreement? If so, does it follow that, if such a person leaves the home of the person upon whom they were dependent as a result of domestic abuse and as a result ceases to be a dependant, they continue to enjoy rights of residence under Article 13 in Title II of Part 2 of the Withdrawal Agreement, and are thus entitled to rely on Article 23 thereof?

The judicial review has been stayed pending the preliminary ruling from the CJEU.