News

03.02.2021 - Brexit: UK to set up new state aid rules for business

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng sets out plans for a new UK-wide subsidy control system, for providing more flexible and tailored financial support to businesses.

Business Secretary wants local authorities and regional governments to have more power.

The EU rules were there to stop governments from providing companies with unfair advantages through cheap loans, tax breaks or funding. Now it has left the EU, the UK needs its own rules.

"Our new, more flexible system will empower public authorities and devolved administrations, and ensure fair competition for businesses across the UK," Mr Kwar...

01.02.2021 - Firms call for details of post lockdown reopening so they can plan

Business leaders have called on the government to work with them on a roadmap out of lockdown to unlock investment for a post-Covid recovery.

In a letter to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, the Confederation of British Industry says the time to plan for re-opening the economy in England is now.

Firms are "in the dark" about planning for the months ahead, the employers' group said.

A government spokesperson said lockdown would be lifted as soon as possible.

But the CBI, which speaks on behalf of about 190,000 businesses, said there is an opportunity to "use time wisely" to prepare for a safe ...

01.02.2021 - Appeal judges reject challenge to domestic abuse policy

In FA (Sudan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 59, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that someone applying to stay in the UK under the domestic abuse rules must have had permission to remain as a partner. This appeal was a bold challenge to the validity of that requirement, on the basis that it was discriminatory. 

Background: the domestic abuse provisions

The case concerned the policy on short-term help for migrant victims of domestic abuse, originally introduced in April 2012 and now called the Destitute domestic violence concession (destitution being one of the c...

29.01.2021 - Mobile visa application system launches in February 2021 for Hong Kong British National Overseas citizens

Government press offices have a habit of re-announcing popular policies, and so it is with the BNO visa. The Home Office has confirmed that the special visa scheme for people from Hong Kong with British National (Overseas) citizenship opens for applications from 31 January 2021.

The application process is digital first: applicants with a biometric chip in their passport will be able to use a smartphone app, just like with the EU Settlement Scheme, rather than turn up to a visa appointment in person. This Covid-friendly process only starts up on 23 February, though. In that sense you could argu...

29.01.2021 - Upper Tribunal has no jurisdiction to correct appeal deadline error

Ndwanyi (Permission to appeal; challenging decision on timeliness) Rwanda [2020] UKUT 378 (IAC) is about how a respondent can challenge a decision that an application for permission to appeal is in time, when in fact it is not in time.

In this case the Home Office had lost the appeal in the First-tier Tribunal and sought permission to appeal. They had 14 calendar days to do so. The decision was promulgated on 20 December 2019, which meant the deadline for filing the application for permission to appeal was 6 January 2020. The Home Office filed the application on 7 January 2020 and asked for an...

27.01.2021 - Deportation appeal not a “dress rehearsal” says Court of Appeal

Lowe v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 62 is about the role of the Upper Tribunal in deportation appeals. The role of an appellate court when reviewing the findings of fact made by the court below sounds straightforward: it will only intervene if the findings are irrational or perverse on the basis of the evidence. But applying that apparently clear principle in practice can be messy. The split Court of Appeal in this case illustrates how.

The underlying issue in the deportation appeal was narrow. The appellant had been sentenced to less than four years in prison and...

26.01.2021 - Procedural unfairness arguments unlikely to help in Points Based System refusals

The Court of Appeal has held that there is no right based on procedural fairness for a migrant to be offered a chance to cure deficiencies in his or her Points Based System application before it is refused. The case is R (Taj) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 19. Practitioners considering such challenges may wish to note the two-stage test set out in the judgment of Lord Justice Green.

Facts

Mr Taj appealed against refusal of his application for permission to remain in the UK as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur). The main reason for refusal was that he failed the “genuineness...

26.01.2021 - Man who lived in UK under assumed identity for over a decade wins right to stay

Stealing someone’s identity is not a “false representation” for the purposes of a 20-year long residence application, the Upper Tribunal has found. The case is Mahmood Bangladesh [2020] UKUT 376 (IAC).

Bangladeshi national Sultan Mahmood, 41, has been living in the UK since at least 1996, but not as Sultan Mahmood. To his employer, his doctor and the taxman he was British citizen Rezaul Karim, 44, having adopted that man’s identity (and National Insurance number) and lived in that guise for over a decade.

In 2009, Mr Mahmood applied for indefinite leave to remain. He did so in his own name, bu...

26.01.2021 - HMRC waives penalty for late filing of self-assessments

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced that it will waive fines for self-assessments that miss the 31 January deadline, as long as they are filed online by 28 February.

Typically, not meeting the deadline would result in an automatic £100 penalty.                                                                                                                       

The tax agency said more than 8.9 million customers have already filed their tax returns.

However, taxpayers are still required to pay their tax bills by 31 January.

Treasury Committee chairman and Conservative MP for Central Devo...

26.01.2021 - Care workers at risk of missing out on EU settled status

Care workers eligible for the EU Settlement Scheme seem unaware of the need to apply, a new report has found.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) surveyed 290 social care workers and found that as many as one in three had never heard of the Settlement Scheme, which allows EU citizens and their family members who apply before 30 June 2021 to remain in the UK despite Brexit.

Survey responses were collected between January and March 2020, mostly from eastern Europeans. The results showed that “1 in 7 care workers surveyed online either did not know or were not sure what the EUS...

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