All Articles: legislation

The new Immigration Bill (see Ronan’s previous post “Summary of clauses“) is so packed with nastiness that some really unpleasant parts of it – perhaps the whole of it – will make it to the statute book. No mainstream politician with influence will today stand up for the rights of...

31st October 2013
BY Colin Yeo

I want to persuade you that our first task when faced with a social evil like the Immigration Bill is not to just to condemn but to understand it.  I say that because those who fail to grasp the deeper motives driving this legislation will underestimate the magnitude of the...

29th October 2013
BY Dexter Dias QC

Originally posted at the Justice Gap. From as early as the 1880s doctors began to report a truly puzzling medical condition. Eventually named ‘Anton’s Syndrome’, medics noticed that some patients who had suffered a sudden loss of sight continued to deny their blindness, pretending that they could see, constructing ever...

22nd October 2013
BY Dexter Dias QC

The new Immigration Bill is a sinister, nasty piece of legislation. Building on man-made laws that define certain humans as ‘illegal’, it seeks to create an even more hostile environment for an already marginalised section of society. People are to be deprived of employment, bank accounts, driving licences, accommodation and...

16th October 2013
BY Colin Yeo

The long promised Immigration Bill, consisting of 66 clauses and 8 schedules, has now been published.  It is accompanied by explanatory notes and a detailed memorandum by the Home Office intended to show that the Bill is compatible with ECHR rights. ‘Highlights’ include: 

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11th October 2013
BY Ronan Toal

When a right of appeal is removed, what is removed is a valuable and necessary constraint on those who exercise original jurisdiction. That is true not merely of immigration officers but of anybody. The immigration officer who knows that his decision may be subject to appeal is likely to be a good deal...

10th October 2013
BY Colin Yeo

Self-styled Theresa ‘CRAZY’ May, our esteemed Home Secretary, has unveiled a range of hardline new immigration measures at the Conservative Party conference. I’ve added the capitals, but in relating her little anecdote about Abu Qatada she seems happy enough to be associated with the moniker: I was told a story by one...

1st October 2013
BY Colin Yeo

Comes into force today. Clarifies that Tier 4 students on post graduate courses of 12 months or longer can sponsor family member dependants. TB screening introduced for those entering from Mauritania for over 6 months and TB screening only required for those entering for settlement from China, Hong Kong and Macau.

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1st August 2013
BY Colin Yeo

Today the closed material procedure for evidence in civil trials comes into effect. This excludes one of the parties from the proceedings, meaning that they do not get to see the evidence relied on by the other party. It violates one of the basic tenets of fair trial and it...

1st July 2013
BY Colin Yeo

If the cuts to the scope of legal aid brought by LASPO 2012 have been significant, the cuts proposed by the Ministry of Justice in the recent consultation “Transforming legal aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system” would be severe. It is of particular concern that the Government has...

3rd June 2013
BY Claire Physsas

UPDATE: NOW IN FORCE. A few weeks ago David Cameron suggested that private landlords should be required to check the immigration status of tenants. Now, lo and behold, the measure is to be included in a new Immigration Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech. This such a Bad Idea it is...

22nd May 2013
BY Free Movement

There are some detailed blog posts to come on some of the more important things that happened in the last fortnight, but for those who missed their beloved Free Movement updates here is a brief round up of developments I’ve spotted looking through my emails on my return from holiday....

21st May 2013
BY Free Movement

This post by Frances Meyler and Sarah Woodhouse, Co-Directors of the Liverpool Law Clinic, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, examines some of the arguments that might be put forward in an application for an ‘Exceptional Case Determination’. It focuses on articles 6 and 13 of the...

26th April 2013
BY Free Movement

Two Statements of Changes to bring to your attention, HC1038 and HC1039. On Monday 1 April 2013, HC1038 came into effect and can be viewed here. Far weightier are the changes contained in HC1039 which will be brought into force on Saturday 6 April 2013 HC1039.   These can be viewed...

4th April 2013
BY Iain Palmer

On 22 November 2012 a new Statement of Changes was laid which brings in quite a few amendments to the Immigration Rules. A large proportion of those changes are yet again to clarify, correct and/or put into place what was apparently always intended with the July 2012 changes. Other changes...

3rd December 2012
BY Sarah Pinder

The Immigration (European Economic Area) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/2560) come into force on 8 November 2012. There are two bits of good news for applicants and one piece of bad news. For previous news, updates and commentary on Zambrano and developments since that case see the EU citizenship blog topic. The...

23rd October 2012
BY Colin Yeo

In another major end of term judgment the Court of Appeal has finally reviewed the legality of preventing reliance on new evidence at Points Based System appeals hearings. The case is Alam v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 960 and it includes a review of the...

17th July 2012
BY Colin Yeo

The Government is amending the Crime and Courts Bill to allow transfer of any or all immigration, asylum and nationality judicial review cases from the High Court to the Upper Tribunal. This seems to have pretty much universal support from Government, Opposition, the High Court and the Upper Tribunal. It...

4th July 2012
BY Free Movement

Amendments to the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (commonly known as the EEA regs) have been laid and will mainly come into force on 16 July 2012. The amendments are at SI 2012/1547. Firstly, there is no sign of any attempt to tackle Zambrano yet. The main change is the...

26th June 2012
BY Colin Yeo

Fresh off the press is the Government’s Statement of Intent: Family Migration which proposes not just to change but to direct the way in which the UKBA and Courts decide Article 8 cases. FM has recently discussed whether it is legally permissible to do this but, for the time being...

13th June 2012
BY Iain Palmer

As has been widely reported in the mainstream media, the Government proposes to scrap family visitor appeal rights. Again. The change is intended to come into full effect in 2014 but as early as July 2012 the definition of ‘family’ will be narrowed to exclude cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces or nephews....

16th May 2012
BY Free Movement

The Government yesterday launched another consultation on restricting immigration, this time family immigration. The splash on the UKBA website is here, the Ministerial statement here, the consultation document here and the accompanying research paper, Family migration: evidence and analysis, here. The affected categories are fiancé(e)s, proposed civil partners, spouses, civil partners, unmarried or same-sex...

14th July 2011
BY Free Movement

On Tuesday I speculated on whether section 19 of the UK Borders Act 2007 might be brought into force. This was entirely speculative at the time, but today I’ve heard rumours that this is indeed what is going to happen, and soon. However, I can find no relevant Commencement Order...

12th May 2011
BY Free Movement

The team behind the iLegal legislation app for iPhones and iPads has been kind enough to provide me with a review copy and I’ve had it running for nearly a week now. It is simple but effective little app that in essence provides an offline version of the revised Acts...

13th March 2011
BY Free Movement

The Home Office has announced that Certificates of Approval will be scrapped in late 2010 or early 2011. This is a belated implementation of the House of Lords judgment in Baiai, handed down exactly two years ago tomorrow, in which their Lordships held that the scheme requiring foreign nationals to...

29th July 2010
BY Free Movement

Few will lament its passing, announced today by still Immigration Minister Phil Woolas. The news is far from unexpected, but the details are interesting. The plan is for the new system to be implemented by early 2010. A full consultation response has also been published. Immigration appeals will be transferred into...

8th May 2009
BY Free Movement

It very much looks like the AIT is about to be scrapped and merged into the new unified Tribunals Service. This is something I posted on way back in September and it now looks very likely to happen. The new system applies to all tribunal work except immigration and asylum....

18th March 2009
BY Free Movement

The government is currently consulting on yet another fundamental overhaul of the immigration appeal system. This has become a bothersomely regular occurance, taking place in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2004, with some further tweaks in 2006 and 2007 – all through primary legislation. Every time it happens, there are a raft of legal challenges […]

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26th September 2008
BY Free Movement

I’ve updated the Borders Bill page here with a little more up to date information. This follows a Home Office press release on 25 June 2007 announcing that protection for children subject to immigration control will be enhanced. I’ve taken a look at the latest amendments tabled before the Lords,...

2nd July 2007
BY Free Movement

The framework for immigration control is mainly contained in the Immigration Act 1971. This has been amended by major pieces of primary legislation in 1988, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and probably also in 2007 by the UK Borders Bill currently before Parliament. Each Act has involved an overhaul of existing immigration law […]

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13th June 2007
BY Free Movement
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