ON APPEAL FROM HIGH COURT
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
(MR JUSTICE SILBER)
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
(LORD NEUBERGER)
LORD JUSTICE MAURICE KAY
and
LORD JUSTICE SULLIVAN
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The Queen on the Application of Medical Justice |
Appellant |
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- and - |
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Secretary of State for the Home Department |
Respondent |
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Ms Dinah Rose QC and Ms Charlotte Kilroy (instructed by Treasury Solicitors) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.
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Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Sullivan:
Introduction.
The policy
" 2.1 Enforcement cases
A minimum of 72 hours (including at least 2 working days) must generally be allowed between informing a person of their removal directions and the removal itself. The last 24 hours of this period must include a working day. There are occasions where this will not apply. (see section 3 of this guidance) which you should consider before setting removal directions."
Section 3 of the policy document deals with those cases: "where standard notification may not [be] required when setting removal directions".
"This Section details when you do not need to provide standard notification when setting removal directions. Standard notification of removal directions does not need to be given where:
a) an exception applies, or
b) where a second period of notification is not needed following a failed removal.
3.1 Exceptions to standard notification of removal
Below we detail the following exceptions to standard notification of removal
- Certain medically documented cases;
- Certain cases involving children;
- Certain cases where swift removal is required because of the best interests of another;
- Certain cases where swift removal is required to maintain order in removal centres;
- Where the removee consents to early removal;
- Port cases where removal occurs within 7 days of refusal.
Where an exception is applied you must ensure that you apply certain safeguards:-
(i) You must let the legal representatives know by fax as soon as the removee is told and where possible bring the matter to the attention of the legal representatives.
(ii) If asked, you must allow the individual to speak to their legal representatives. This may involve providing the removee with a mobile telephone.
(iii) Where possible you must schedule the removal for a working day, during office hours.
(iv) Where you provide the removee with less than the standard notification of removal you should nonetheless provide as much notice as possible.
(v) The application of an exception should where possible only delay service of the removal directions. If possible it should not delay service of a decision to refuse any immigration application or further submission.
(vi) You must obtain written authority at Deputy Director level before applying any of these exceptions (other than in Port cases) and send details to the Litigation Management Unit. Where removees are held within an Immigration Removals Centre you should obtain authority from a Deputy Director from within detention services.
This list of safeguards is not definitive. It may be appropriate to build in other safeguards on a case by case basis to ensure that removees have effective access to the courts."
The judgment below
"171. The main challenge of the claimant to the 2010 exceptions was that it abrogated the constitutional right of access to justice. This right means that every individual must be in a position to challenge a decision in the court. This right was acknowledged by the Secretary of State in the 2007 policy document which stated that "we need to ensure that persons, subject to removal enforced removals have sufficient time between the notification of the [removal directions] and the date/time of removal to seek legal advice and/or to apply for [judicial review]". Further the Chief Executive of UKBA stated in a letter dated 1 March 2007 in relation to the minimum 72-hour time frame that "in setting the revised minimum time frames for notification of removal we have had to balance the need to ensure proper access to court with the public interest in establishing a robust removal process that makes sufficient use of limited detention facilities".
172. Unfortunately, the 2010 exceptions do not take account of "the need to ensure proper access to the courts" as they permit the Secretary of State to depart from the standard policy of giving a minimum of 72 hours' notice of removal including at least two working days with the last 24 hours being on a working day. The effect of the 2010 exceptions is that in practice in the limited time available between serving the removal directions and the actual removal, it is frequently almost impossible that somebody served with removal directions will be able to find a lawyer who would be ready, willing and able to provide legal advice within the time available prior to removal let alone in an appropriate case to challenge those removal directions. There is a very high risk if not an inevitability that the right of access to justice is being and will be infringed. Miss Rose suggested that the Secretary of State could have provided at her expense an independent lawyer to advise those served with abridged notice.
173. Unfortunately, there are no adequate safeguards built in to the present policy which would ensure that removal could not take place. If somebody had been given very short notice of removal and then in the time available before removal it was impossible for him to contact a lawyer and to obtain advice. There are instances which are set out in paragraphs 108 and 109 above and which show how the policy functions and how it could preclude those served with short notice from enjoying the basic right of access to justice. This means the policy in the 2010 exceptions and which is contained in Section 3 of the 2010 policy document, which was suspended as a result of an interim judgment by Cranston J, has to be quashed. I should record that I considered the possibility that I should not quash the policy but that instead should merely await challenges in individual cases but that is not appropriate because in many cases where access to justice is not available to those served with abridged notice pursuant to the 2010 exceptions, they will be deported and will be unable to pursue their claim from abroad. There are also, as I have explained other grounds for quashing parts of the policy in Section 3 of the 2010 document. Finally I should stress that nothing in this judgment casts any doubt on the legality of the minimum 72 hour time frame and the effect of this quashing order is that those covered by the 2010 exceptions now fall within that time frame."
The grounds of appeal
"The effect of the judge's conclusion is that in order to ensure the right of access to a court every individual who wishes to access that court must be able to receive legal advice, possibly even paid for by the state. It would have significant implications for the provision of legal services in this country and for the availability of public funding for legal advice."
Ground 1
"Mr Swift disputes these submissions because he points out that Daly is concerned with a prisoner's right to legal advice in the context of the right to search a prisoner's property which included correspondence with legal advisors. That is correct but a person subject to removal directions has, in Lord Steyn's words in Anufrijeva quoted in paragraph 43 (c) above, to be "in a position to challenge the decision in the courts" and that means a genuine opportunity. The importance of having this opportunity was expressly recognised by the Secretary of State in the 2007 policy document, which stated, as I have explained that "we need to ensure that persons, subject to removal enforced removals have sufficient time between the notification of the [removal directions] and the date/time of removal to seek legal advice and/or to apply for [judicial review]". Further, as I will explain in paragraph 63 below, the Chief Executive of UKBA stated in respect of the minimum 72-hour time frame that this required UKBA "to balance the need to ensure proper access to court with the public interest in establishing a robust removal process". The correct recognition in those passages of the need for somebody served with removal directions "proper access to justice" as well as to "have sufficient time between the notification of the [removal directions] and the date/time of removal to seek legal advice and/or to apply [to court]" means that it must be necessary for someone served with any removal directions, which must include those served with abridged notice under the 2010 exceptions and who so wishes to have sufficient time between service of the removal directions and the time fixed for removal to find and instruct a lawyer who:-
(i) is ready to provide legal advice in the limited time available prior to removal, which might also entail ensuring that the provider of the advice would be paid;
(ii) is willing and able to provide legal advice under the seal of professional privilege in the limited time available prior to removal which might also entail being able to find and locate all relevant documents; and
(iii) (if appropriate) would after providing the relevant advice be ready, willing and able in the limited time available prior to removal to challenge the removal directions."
"I have already explained that to have access to justice, the person subject to removal(other than those who wish to be removed and have consented in writing) need in the limited time available prior to removal to have a genuine opportunity to find a legal adviser who is ready, willing and able to provide legal advice and who (if appropriate) would after providing the relevant advice be ready, willing and able in the limited time available prior to removal to challenge the removal directions. Otherwise he or she would not have access to justice. I have already explained in paragraph 45 how this genuine opportunity was something which the Secretary of State explained in the 2007 policy document that the United Kingdom Border Agency needed to ensure."
"....cannot be short-circuited and they usually inevitably take substantial periods of time. Not surprisingly, the 72-hour procedure referred to in the standard directions has been described by Ms Lin Homer the Chief Executive of UKBA as "quite tight" in a letter of 26 January 2007. Miss Rose submits that the 2010 exceptions, which reduced the 72-hour period, have to be considered in the light of this statement and the fact that there are now far fewer immigration lawyers available than when Ms Homer made that statement."
"A fourth very serious, if not crucial, limitation on the access provision is that it does not state or even imply that removal directions should be deferred if the individual has in the time available between receipt of the direction and the time for removal been unable to obtain legal advice in spite of exercising his or her best efforts to do so or perhaps more importantly he could not conceivably have been able to obtain legal advice in the time available.. Indeed there is no obligation or more importantly perhaps even no discretion to defer removal in those circumstances and particularly where the right of access to justice has clearly been infringed."
"I am driven to the conclusion that the safeguards do not ensure those about to be removed under the 2010 exceptions have adequate safeguards built in to ensure that they have access to justice. It is clear that the standard 72 hour minimum time frame was as Ms Homer explained a result of the obligation "to balance the need to ensure proper access to court with the public interest in establishing a robust removal process that makes sufficient use of limited detention facilities". There is no such balance in 2010 exceptions of providing a minimum period of notice built into the safeguards, nor are there any provisions precluding removal if the person subject to removal could not obtain access to any lawyer or to legal advice in the period between service of the removal instructions and actual removal."
"It is not necessary to defer removal on a threat of JR, although it is important to consider whether the person concerned has had the opportunity to lodge a claim with the court (particularly in non suspensive or third country cases where there has been no in-country right of appeal). Usually we only need to consider deferring of removal if a judicial review application is properly lodged with the court and the court has issued a claim form."
"You should not normally defer removal or the threat of a JR where there is just a threat of judicial review. Removal directions should remain in place until a Crown Office [CO] reference or injunction is obtained. All threats of judicial review should be referred to the Operational Support and Certification Unit [OSCU] who will consider whether it is appropriate to maintain removal directions."
"103. I do not consider that these provisions guarantee or even show that those about to be removed have effective access to the courts. Each of the circumstances in which deferral takes place can only in practice occur after first a lawyer has been consulted, second the lawyer can properly be funded, third he or she then has had an opportunity to consider the relevant papers, fourth he or she is than able to take instructions and fifth the lawyer has been able to reach a conclusion which enables him or her to make a threat of proceedings. There are great difficulties about reaching that stage in the limited time available, which can be wholly or mainly outside office hours when the 2010 exceptions are applied as I have explained in paragraphs 60 to 80 above.
104. The stark fact is that there is no provision which states that removal will be deferred where a person subject to the 2010 exceptions could not conceivably have been able to obtain legal advice and legal advice or even where that person has made all reasonable efforts to obtain legal advice and access to the courts but nevertheless has been unable to do so in the very limited time available."
Ground 2
"I will apply that approach, which is not disputed by either party."
"There is a very high risk if not an inevitability that the right to access to justice is being and will be infringed."
"I am driven to the conclusion that the safeguards do not ensure those about to be removed under the 2010 exceptions have adequate safeguards built in to ensure that they have access to justice. It is clear that the standard 72 hour minimum time frame was as Ms Homer explained a result of the obligation "to balance the need to ensure proper access to court with the public interest in establishing a robust removal process that makes sufficient use of limited detention facilities". There is no such balance in 2010 exceptions of providing a minimum period of notice built into the safeguards, nor are there any provisions precluding removal if the person subject to removal could not obtain access to any lawyer or to legal advice in the period between service of the removal instructions and actual removal."
"This list of safeguards is not definitive. It may be appropriate to build in other safeguards on a case by case basis to ensure that removees have effective access to the court "
84. Mr Swift has described the access provision as an "overriding requirement" and he even suggests that it is a clear requirement. I am unable to agree with the contention that the access provision constitutes an effective safeguard to ensure that the right of access to justice is safeguarded for at least four reasons.
85. First, what is lacking in this provision is any obligation to ensure that those about to be removed have effective access to the courts. By stating that "it may be appropriate to build in other safeguards… to ensure the removees have effective access to courts", it is clear that no obligation whatsoever is imposed on those who have to enforce the 2010 exceptions to ensure that there is effective access to the courts. In my view, such an obligation is essential so as to provide and to ensure that those detained have access to the courts. That previous standard policy which I described in paragraphs 17 and 29 above gave much longer period of notice and significantly it was "a minimum time frame" and was devised to ensure that those served with removal directions had "sufficient time between the notification of the [removal directions] and the date/time of removal to seek legal advice and/or to apply for [judicial review]". This provision and the much longer and specified periods required for standard notification show why the objections made by the claimant to the 2010 exceptions do not apply to the standard notification provisions.
86. A second objection is that no explanation or instructions are given to UKBA employees or independent contractors as to how the access provision is to be used and, in particular, what steps have to be taken to ensure that the person subject to the 2010 exceptions actually has access or could reasonably be expected to have access to a lawyer, who would be able in the time available to advise and to obtain (if appropriate) a stay of the removal directions.
87. A third defect of this provision is that no explanation has been put forward as to how the 2010 exceptions would apply so to ensure that the right of access to the courts was preserved when the person about to be removed either has no lawyer currently acting for them or has a lawyer who has closed the file and who does not have ready access to the crucial papers. I have already explained the difficulties in obtaining legal representation for those cases where the 2010 exceptions are invoked in the reduced time available and this evidence has not been disputed.
88. A fourth very serious, if not crucial, limitation on the access provision is that it does not state or even imply that removal directions should be deferred if the individual has in the time available between receipt of the direction and the time for removal been unable to obtain legal advice in spite of exercising his or her best efforts to do so or perhaps more importantly he could not conceivably have been able to obtain legal advice in the time available.. Indeed there is no obligation or more importantly perhaps even no discretion to defer removal in those circumstances and particularly where the right of access to justice has clearly been infringed."
"You must provide standard notification in any case where a shorter period of notification would prevent the removee from having effective access to the court."
As Ms Rose pointed out, such a provision would, on the judge's findings, effectively negate the application of the Section 3 policy.
Ground 3
Lord Justice Maurice Kay:
Lord Neuberger MR :
Order: Appeal dismissed