IB, ASY & ors (appellants) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department (respondent)
Wednesday 21 – Thursday 22 February 2024
By Appellant’s Notice filed on the 23 February 2023, this is an appeal against the Order of May J dated 2nd February 2023.
The applicants (non-British single mothers and their minor children) had sought damages under S.8 Human Rights Act 1998 for breach of their right under Article 3 ECHR following the imposition on them that they should have no recourse to public funds (NRPF). The scheme, which disentitled non-British citizens with limited leave to remain from seeking assistance from public funds, had been declared unlawful in R (W, a Child by his Litigation Friend J) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] [2020] 1 WLR 4420.
The question was heard as a preliminary issue and HHJ Walton made an Order on 28th January 2022 following a judgment in favour of the Claimants.
The SSHD appealed. May J allowed the SSHD’s appeal stating “I do not consider that, by operating a scheme found to be unlawful for the reasons given in W, the SSHD was in breach of a systems duty owed to persons subject to an NRPF condition of their LLTR. There is thus no causal link between the damages claimed and a violation. It has to be remembered that the purpose of Article 3 of the Convention is to protect persons against ill-usage of a very high degree of severity. At no stage did these Claimants suffer destitution to the point of IDT and when they applied to have the condition lifted, their requests were granted.”
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