Presidential guidance on amending claims for judicial review: (i) The amendment of a judicial review claim form preceding the lodgement of the Acknowledgement of Service does not require the permission of the Tribunal. Such permission is required in all other instances. (ii) In deciding whether to exercise its discretionary power...
“Technical”, “deeply unattractive”, “disingenuous”, “singularly lacks merit”, “ridiculous”, “inappropriate”, “extraordinary”. All words used by Elias or Vos LLJ to describe the arguments advanced by the Home Office in the course of their judgments in the remarkable case of R (On the Application Of Ufot) v Secretary of State for the...
President McCloskey has firmly rejected the Home Office case against students alleged to have fraudulently obtained English language test certificate from ETS (“Educational Testing Services Ltd”) in the case of SM and Ihsan Qadir v Secretary of State for the Home Department IA/31380/2014. The President finds that the Home Office...
In yet another case highlighting the absurdly hostile, bureaucratic and inflexible nature of the UK’s Points Based System the Court of Appeal has held that a Tier 1 Entrepreneur might benefit from a policy on evidential flexibility that was “much broader” than the rules themselves. The case is SH (Pakistan)...
Former interpreters for UK armed forces in Afghanistan have lost their claim that the Afghn interpreter relocation scheme was unlawful on the basis it was less generous than the Iraqi equivalent. They succeeded on the basis that the public sector equality duty had not been properly complied with but this...
A new Detention Services Order, DSO 03/2016, has been issued by the Home Office. The name is innocuous — Considering detainee placement — but we can hope that it will have a significant impact because what it really requires is a proper risk assessment before a person is accepted into...
The excellent AIRE Centre are fundraising for a challenge to Operation Nexus, the joint Met Police and Home Office initiative that allows people to be deported from the UK without any convictions. It is not just foreign nationals that are being targeted but also EEA nationals. We’ve covered Operation Nexus...
Upper Tribunal Judge Richard Chalkley retires with effect from 1 May 2016. Upper Tribunal Judge Chalkley (67) was admitted as a Solicitor in 1974. He was appointed a part-time Immigration Adjudicator in 1995, part-time Special Immigration Adjudicator in 1996, Immigration Adjudicator in 1999, Legal Member of the Immigration Appeals Tribunal...
The High Court has awarded damages of just £3,750 to an Algerian man for a period of five months of unlawful detention. This was just the latest period of immigration detention for Mr Sino, though, who has been detained for a cumulative total of seven years and two months. Mr...
A consultation on amendments to the practice direction on duty of candour in judicial review proceedings has been launched by the judiciary. The consultation paper has been prepared by Lewis and Cranston JJ. The headline refers to the Defendant’s duty of candour but in fact very little indeed is proposed...
Very interesting piece on allowed appeals and quality of decision making by Robert Thomas of the University of Manchester. Particularly interesting given the reduced appeal numbers owing to high appeal fees in employment and now seemingly in immigration. There is also an important debate in relation to the rate of...
BL (Jamaica) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 357 is essentially an unhelpful judgment for convicted criminals arguing against deportation orders on Article 8 grounds. It overturned a McCloskey J and UTJ Perkins decision in the Upper Tribunal that allowed the appeal from a...
This guidance tells Interventions and Sanctions Directorate (ISD) case liaison officers about the driving licence revocation process, including how to deal with a request made by a migrant with a UK driving licence, or the migrant’s representative, not to revoke the driving licence. Source: Offender management – Publications – GOV.UK
...As the western world struggles to cope with the influx of immigrants fleeing tyranny and war, The Making of an Immigration Judge cuts through the hysteria of the headlines to provide a definitive account of the problems facing Europe today – and how we might solve them. With more than...
The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson QC, has issued a report on citizenship removal resulting in statelessness. There had been no cases during the period covered by the report, 30 July 2014 to 29 July 2015, so the report does not go into any specifics. Anderson instead reviews...
The First-tier Tribunal has allowed the Home Office appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision that training slides used to inform Home Office Presenting Officers on the 2014 legislative reforms to human rights law should be released. Some additional limited information will be published but the Home Office’s internal instructions to...
In the recent case of R (on the application of C) v First-Tier Tribunal and Others [2016] EWHC 707 (Admin) (not yet on BAILII but available on Westlaw) Picken J ruled that the immigration tribunal can appoint a litigation friend to represent a person who lacks capacity even though there...
MS -v- SSHD AA/07855/2013 Useful note from Kalvir Kaur at the Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU). Thanks for circulating, Kalvir: In a strongly worded judgment, The Hon. Mr Justice McCloskey, President and Upper Tribunal Judge Blum held that the tribunal has jurisdiction to make their own decision on...
As if Michael Gove MP needed further reminding, in wake of Colin Yeo’s appearance on World at One on Wednesday where he pointed out the fundamental error of the Justice Secretary’s assertion that Britain cannot deport EEA nationals with a criminal record, the Supreme Court in R (on the application...
The Government is proposing a massive fivefold increase in immigration appeal fees in order to make the immigration tribunal the only part of the court and tribunal service entirely self funded by fees: We therefore propose increasing fees in the First-tier Tribunal from £80 to £490 for an application for a...
JCWI is running a new fundraising campaing to create a series of plaques in the style of the blue national heritage ones to celebrate the contribution of refugees to our society over time. …In fact refugees have historically been huge contributors to innovation, industry and culture around the world. Refugee...
Excellent report by Catrin Nye into unlawful immigration detention and the compensation paid to those wrongfulyl detained. Good to see Conservative MP Tim Loughton speaking out on the wastefulness of the process, the pointlessness of detaining then releasing, as occurs in 60% of cases, and referencing the recent Shaw Review....
Michael Gove yesterday claimed amongst other things that: Inside the EU we have to accept that anyone with an EU passport – even if they have a criminal record – can breeze into this country. That will include countries in the pipeline to join the EU – Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
The Garden Court Chambers Immigration Team wishes to recruit two outstanding advocates who can demonstrate a strong commitment to civil liberties. We expect to recruit individuals with up to three years post qualification experience. Candidates must be immigration specialists committed to practising within the principles and ethos of chambers. The...
The Supreme Court has allowed the appeal against the residence test for legal aid, overturning the Court of Appeal judgment in favour of the Home Office. The basis for the Supreme Court’s decision is that the Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling at that time, did not have the legal power to...
In a VERY interesting paper, Robert Thomas of the University of Manchester analyses the statistics on judicial review cases since they were transferred from the Administrative Court to the Upper Tribunal. He finds that the number and proportion of claims certified as “totally without merit” has increased considerably and so...
Case on calculating annual salary under Tier 2 when the applicant is paid weekly: The effect of paragraph 14 of Appendix J to the Immigration Rules is that other than where an applicant has contracted weekly hours or is paid an hourly rate, the appropriate salary for the purposes of...
If you are planning to return from the continent with a little illicit saucisson and brie, then beware of the dogs at Manchester Airport. According to David Bolt, the independent chief inspector of Borders and Immigration, the Border Force detector dogs at Manchester ‘were making multiple detections of small amounts...
It is the immigration decision that triggers the right of appeal, not the notice of decision: Singh (No immigration decision – jurisdiction)[2013] UKUT 440 (IAC) is authority for proposition that the First-tier Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear an appeal only where there has been an immigration decision. It is not...
1. The question whether the appellant “is a persistent offender” is a question of mixed fact and law and falls to be determined by the Tribunal as at the date of the hearing before it. 2. The phrase “persistent offender” in s.117D(2)(c) of the 2002 Act must mean the same...
