April 15, 2024

HHB -v- Secretary of State for the Home Department (anonymity order)

Administrative Court High Court King's Bench Division Anonymity Order

Claim number: AC-2024-LON-000240

In the High Court of Justice
King’s Bench Division
Administrative Court

15 April 2024

Before:

Richard Clayton KC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge

Between:

The King on application of
HHB

-v-

Secretary of State for the Home Department

Order

Notification of the Judge’s decision on the application for permission to apply for judicial review (CPR 54.11, 54.12)
Following consideration of the documents lodged by the Claimant and the Acknowledgement of service filed by the Defendant

ORDER by Richard Clayton KC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge

1. The Claimant’s application for anonymity pursuant to CPR r.39.2 is granted and he shall be referred to in these proceedings as HHB. The Claimant is particularly vulnerable by virtue of his status as a victim of trafficking. Anonymity is also necessary to protect him from his traffickers. There is no pressing public interest weighing against anonymisation.

2. The Defendant’s applications of 19 February and 26 February 2024 to extend time for filing the Acknowledgement of Service to 4 March 2024 are granted. Although the Claimant opposed the applications, themselves the Defendant filed its Acknowledgment by 4 March 2024.

3. The Claimant’s application of 11 March 2024 to amend the claim is granted in the terms set out in his Amended Statement of Facts and Grounds is granted. I have carefully considered and applied, so far ais it is appropriate to do so, the principles set out in R(Dolan) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2021] 1 W.L.R. 2326 [116-121]. In exercise of my discretion I grant the application to amend, having regard to the particular circumstances of this case, the very close legal and factual connection the proposed amendment (ground 3) have with grounds 1 and 2 of the original Statement of Facts and Grounds, and the various other benefits that arise from granting the amendment (including the saving of time and the parties. costs as well as other potential procedural difficulties that otherwise might arise if the original and amended grounds were heard separately).

4. The application for permission to apply for judicial review is granted.

5. The application is to be listed for 1 ½ days; the parties to provide a written time estimate within 7 days of service of this order if they disagree with this direction.

Case Management Directions

1. The Defendant shall, within 35 days of the date of service of this Order, file and serve (a) Detailed Grounds for contesting the claim or supporting it on additional grounds, and (b) any written evidence that is to be relied on. For the avoidance of doubt, a party who has filed and served Summary Grounds pursuant to CPR 54.8 may comply with (a) above by filing and serving a document which states that those Summary Grounds shall stand as the Detailed Grounds required by CPR 54.14.

2. Any application by the Claimant to serve evidence in reply shall be filed and served within 21 days of the date on which the Defendant serves evidence pursuant to 1(b) above.

3. The parties shall agree the contents of the hearing bundle and must file it with the Court not less than 4 weeks before the date of the hearing of the judicial review. An electronic version of the bundle shall be prepared and lodged in accordance with the Guidance on the Administrative Court website. The parties shall, if requested by the Court lodge 2 hard-copy versions of the hearing bundle.

4. The Claimant must file and serve a Skeleton Argument not less than 21 days before the date of the hearing of the judicial review.

5. The Defendant must file and serve a Skeleton Argument not less than 14 days before the date of the hearing of the judicial review.

6. The parties shall agree the contents of a bundle containing the authorities to be referred to at the hearing. An electronic version of the bundle shall be prepared in accordance with the Guidance on the Administrative Court website. The parties shall if requested by the Court, prepare a hard-copy version of the authorities bundle. The electronic version of the bundle and if requested, the hard copy version of the bundle, shall be lodged with the Court not less than [3] days before the date of the hearing of the judicial review.