The High Court has again confirmed that mandatory sponsor licence revocation is, indeed, mandatory. One Trees Estates Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1644 (Admin) brings consensus to the courts’ approach on the Home Office’s duty to undertake a wider...
The High Court has held that the decision made by Suella Braverman not to implement recommendations made in Wendy Williams’ review into the Windrush scandal was unlawful. The recommendations specifically related to the creation of a Migrants’ Commissioner role and the review of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and...
The High Court has held that, when judicially reviewing a decision of the Upper Tribunal refusing permission to appeal (known as a Cart judicial review), there is no oral permission hearing. This was the conclusion reached in Karim v Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) [2024] EWHC 1368 (Admin). The...
Two claimants, the charity Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London “RAMFEL” and Ms Adjei, have succeeded in a judicial review where it was held that the Home Secretary’s failure to provide people on section 3C leave with digital evidence of their status was unlawful. The case is R...
In the latest and last judgment in some fairly complex litigation around the use of hotels to accommodation and other issues, the High Court seems to have finally got to a point with Kent County Council where they accept that they cannot get around the duty to find a placement...
As the Home Office continues to step up enforcement action in the care sector, we have had another sponsor licence revocation decision involving a large care home operator successfully judicially reviewed in the High Court. In R (New Hope Care Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024]...
A man who had lived in the UK for over 20 years and was married to a British national before the relationship broke down has been unsuccessful in his challenge to an entry clearance refusal on the grounds that he had not received the notice of curtailment. The case is...
The High Court has determined that the Home Secretary’s use of electronic monitoring was unlawful in respect of four claimants and the principles applied in the case will have a wider impact. The court also found that the Home Secretary can lawfully use data collected through electronic monitoring to decide...
The second part of a challenge to the family reunion rules that exclude child refugees from bringing their family to the UK has been dismissed by the High Court. The case is R (DM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees intervening) [2024]...
During judicial review proceedings it has been disclosed that around 80 children were evacuated from Afghanistan and separated from their families and a new route is to be put in place to facilitate the reunion of these families shortly. The case is R (HR & Ors) v Secretary of State...
The High Court has dismissed a judicial review raised by an Albanian national challenging a negative reasonable grounds (first stage) decision in his trafficking claim, finding that his employer did not have the intention to exploit him at the point of recruitment. The case is R (MT) v Secretary of...
The High Court has heard three Hamid referrals, two of which concerned asylum cases and one of those resulted in a referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Given the professional implications, any practitioner reading this should already be well aware of the Hamid jurisdiction, which is essentially a disciplinary process...
The latest instalment of the Akinsanya litigation, which looks at the entitlement of Zambrano carers to leave under Appendix EU has been decided by the High Court in Akinsanya & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 469 (Admin). Both appellants...
The government continues to try to maintain its ability to redact the names of junior civil servants in judicial review proceedings and the courts continue to tell them that they cannot do this. The latest instalment is MTA, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home...
This is another successful challenge from a former Afghan judge who was unlawfully excluded from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme (ARAP). The case is MP1, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Defence [2024] EWHC 410 (Admin). Background MP1 worked as a criminal defence lawyer...
In the latest case challenging a decision made under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, the High Court has quashed the refusal decision on the basis that it was not supported by the evidence that had been provided in support of the application. The case is R (MA) v Secretary...
A new version of the modern slavery statutory guidance was published in January, adding some protections for people who are at risk of being disqualified from trafficking support due to a public order offence. These changes were made following the Home Secretary’s concession of a judicial review challenge to guidance...
The High Court has quashed decisions refusing leave to two journalists under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, known as ARAP. ARAP governs the circumstances in which the UK will grant leave to relocate to the UK to people who are at risk because they worked for or alongside UK...
The question of who has the duty to provide accommodation where a person has certain needs under the Care Act 2014 has been the subject of recent litigation and appears to have been resolved in the Home Secretary’s favour. In R (TMX) v London Borough of Croydon & Anor [2024]...
In Geddes v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 66 (Admin) the High Court has said that a pending application to the Supreme Court does not act as an barrier to deportation on the basis that the appeal has not yet been finally determined. Background In 2007,...
The case of R (Karimi) v Sheffield City Council [2024] EWHC 93 (Admin) is a reminder of the importance of filing skeleton arguments in a timely manner with the court. Mr Justice Fordham KC was considering the issue of permission in an age assessment judicial review against a local authority...
Earlier this month we considered a High Court judgment which upheld the Home Office’s decision to revoke a large care home operator’s sponsor licence due to several non-compliance issues. The High Court has now handed down its judgment in Supporting Care Ltd, R (On the Application Of v Secretary of...
The Home Secretary has been unlawfully operating a secret policy preventing victims of trafficking from being granted the leave that they were entitled to while their asylum claim was pending. The case is XY v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 81 (Admin). This article is a...
In the case of R (On the Application Of Medical Justice) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 38 (Admin), handed down on 12 January 2024, the High Court allowed a judicial review brought by the charity Medical Justice to a Home Office policy of seeking a...
On 13 December 2023 the Home Office announced that the rates of additional payments made to pregnant asylum seekers and children under 4 years old under Regulation 10A of the Asylum Support Regulations 2000 would be increased in line with the Department of Health and Social Care’s ‘Healthy Start’ scheme....
The High Court ruling in Prestwick Care Ltd & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3193 (Admin) has upheld the Home Office’s decision to revoke the sponsor licence of a large care home operator in the North East. The judgment is a harsh reminder that,...
The High Court has issued a damning interim relief decision with a laundry list of Home Office failures in a case challenging the detention of a potential victim of trafficking with mental health issues and several criminal convictions. The case is R (ER) v Secretary of State for the Home...
The two district councils and local resident who brought a judicial review challenging the use of decommissioned Ministry of Defence sites at Wethersfield and Scampton to accommodate men seeking asylum have been unsuccessful in the High Court. The case is R (Clarke-Holland) v Secretary State for the Home Department &...
The Home Secretary must set out a lawful plan to completely end its use of hotels for accommodating lone refugee children. This is the conclusion of Judge Chamberlain in R (on the application of Kent County Council) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3030 (Admin). The...
The Home Secretary has conceded the claims of two former immigration detainees relating to a power outage at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC), a detention centre next to Heathrow airport. The Home Secretary not only paid both claimants substantial amounts in damages for unlawfully detaining them, but also declared that...
The High Court has issued a damning judgment lamenting the Home Secretary’s attempt to defend a decision to place a highly vulnerable person seeking asylum in accommodation in Swindon, where he could not access his support network in London. The case is R (NS) v Secretary of State for the...
It appears that we may start seeing changes in overseas visa processing centres soon, after TLScontact was unsuccessful in an attempt to stop the Home Office from entering into a new contract with VFS Global. The case is Teleperformance Contact Ltd v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023]...
The Home Office has conceded the latest in an increasingly long line of cases challenging the operation of the no recourse to public funds policy. This challenge was to the refusal to lift the no recourse condition from a person with section 3C leave as a student dependant. The case...
A claimant wrongly given a deportation order couldn’t benefit from the Windrush Compensation Scheme because his indefinite leave to remain had already lapsed, the High Court has held in R (on the application of Thompson) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 2037 (Admin). The compensation scheme...
The Home Secretary’s systematic and routine accommodation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels is unlawful, the High Court has held. The case, R (on the application of ECPAT UK) v Kent County Council and another [2023] EWHC 1953 (Admin), looks at what happens when local authorities don’t comply with their...
In the recent judgment R (HA and Ors) v SSHD [2023] EWHC 1876 (Admin) the High Court (Swift J) found that the Home Secretary failed to meet even her minimalist legal obligations to provide support to destitute asylum seekers. The details of the case make shocking reading, even for those...
A student whose leave was cancelled on arrival was wrongly denied the opportunity to comment on an allegation of falsified English language qualifications. So held the High Court in R (on the application of Tazeem) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1828 (Admin), a case addressing...
