News

10.06.2021 - You can now get an EU Settlement Scheme application form by email

Most people applying to the EU Settlement Scheme do so online. A minority of people cannot, generally those who are not EU citizens but who nevertheless qualify for the EU Settlement Scheme under a variety of scenic routes (known to lawyers as Zambrano, Chen, Ibrahim, Surinder Singh and Lounes). Those people have to call the Settlement Scheme helpline and ask for a paper application form to be posted out, filled in and returned. It’s much more of a faff.

With 20 days to go before the Settlement Scheme deadline, the Home Office now says that these application forms can be ordered and returned b...

09.06.2021 - Rehabilitative work in the community no barrier to deportation

In Jallow v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 788 the Court of Appeal looked at the weight that should be given to the rehabilitation of a foreign offender in their appeal against deportation.

Not a great deal, concluded Lord Justice Lewis, giving the unanimous judgment of the court.

They tried to make me go to rehab…

Mr Jallow was subject to deportation proceedings following his conviction for possession with intent to supply of Class A drugs and subsequent sentence of three years eight months.

In his appeal against deportation, he was unable to show that he fell unde...

09.06.2021 - Can you get compensation if an immigration officer acts unlawfully?

This is the question addressed by Scotland’s Sheriff Appeal Court in Galbraith Trawlers Limited v Advocate General for Scotland [2021] SAC (Civ) 15.

Fishing boats impounded over illegal immigration charges

In 2015, an immigration officer issued letters purporting to detain three of its fishing vessels. Mr Galbraith, the company’s owner, had hired Filipino fishing crew and was charged with facilitating illegal immigration. Mr Galbraith’s position has always been that the crew was permitted to enter the UK without visas under section 8 of the Immigration Act 1971, in the same way that airline ca...

08.06.2021 - Home movers dominate mortgage borrowing

Home movers were responsible for a record proportion of mortgage borrowing in the first three months of the year as they dominated demand for property.

Some 42% of total mortgage lending went to this group - the highest level since comparable records began in 2007, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.

This was up from 27% of lending a year earlier, the regulator said.

It was in contrast to first-time buyers whose share of loans was up by just two percentage points in the same period.

The UK housing market has been surging this year with potential buyers competing for homes.

This demand ...

08.06.2021 - Economy faces long Covid if debts not tackled

Hospitality, retail and leisure firms are facing huge levels of debt as the economy reopens, industry bodies have told the government.

Kate Nicholls, the boss of Hospitality UK, warned of "long Covid for the economy, if you're not very careful".

Speaking to the Treasury Select Committee, other trade bodies said government support had not been adequate during the pandemic.

Ms Nicholls told MPs that the industry had amassed £2.5bn of rent debt.

She added that the hospitality sector was coming out of lockdown with another £6bn worth of government debt accrued through schemes such as the Coronavir...

08.06.2021 - New data matching powers are a threat to migrant communities

The government’s threat to increase its use of data matching is now becoming a reality with plans to expand the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). If implemented, the proposals would extend data matching powers from their current use in tackling fraud to cover other criminal activity, as well as debt recovery and data quality.

What is data matching?

Data matching, as described by the Information Commissioner’s Office, involves “combining, comparing or matching personal data obtained from multiple sources”.

Currently, the NFI collects more than 20 data types over 8,000 datasets from 1,300 partici...

07.06.2021 - G7 reach deal to stop global corporate tax avoidance

The G7 group of advanced economies has reached a "historic" deal to make multinational companies pay more tax.

Finance ministers meeting in London agreed to battle tax avoidance by making companies pay more in the countries where they do business.

They also agreed in principle to a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to avoid countries undercutting each other.

Tech giants Amazon and Facebook are among those likely to be affected.

The deal announced on Saturday, between the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan, plus the EU, could see billions of dollars flow to governments ...

04.06.2021 - Coronavirus and the UK immigration system (as of 04 June 2021)

People stuck outside the UK

On 11 January 2021, the Home Office published a Covid Visa Concession Scheme. It is designed to help people who had permission to live in the UK but whose permission expired while they were stuck abroad due to coronavirus travel restrictions, leaving them unable to return. Provided they meet the eligibility criteria in the guidance, such people will be granted entry clearance valid for three months to allow them to travel back to the UK and apply properly to extend their stay. 

Those who left the UK after 17 March 2020 will only be considered for this concession in...

03.06.2021 - Murderer’s bid to be deported foiled by extradition request

A convicted murderer and father of a Portuguese football star has lost a legal challenge arguing for his own deportation in order to get out of prison earlier than the Parole Board will allow. The case is R (Lopes) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anr [2021] EWCA Civ 805.

Convicted of murder in the UK

Filomeno Antonio Lopes, 53, is originally from Guinea-Bissau but moved to Portugal in the early 1990s. He is wanted by the Portuguese authorities for several armed robberies allegedly committed in 1999. That same year, he came to the UK — the government’s take is that he “fled” Port...

02.06.2021 - Home Office accidentally discriminates against trafficking victims with kids

The High Court has declared that an anomaly in the benefits system which disadvantages victims of trafficking who receive asylum support is discriminatory and in breach of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Unusually, the Secretary of State confessed to the court that she was not sure how the difference in treatment had happened and her only defence was that she wanted more time to think about how to fix it. Having granted her five extensions to prepare her case, in R (MD) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1370 (Admin) the High Court decided enough wa...

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