The High Court has today ruled that the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has acted and is continuing to act unlawfully by failing in her legal duty to provide for the essential living needs of asylum seekers. This follows evidence that she ignored advice from her officials, first issued on 31 August 2022 and repeated in September and November 2022, that she must increase the rate of weekly financial support paid to asylum seekers in order to avoid breaking the law. Read GMLC’s full press release on the ruling below, also shared on the Doughty Street Chambers website here.
Under Act of Parliament, the Home Secretary is under a legal duty to review the rate of support for asylum seekers in order to ensure that it is sufficient to meet their basic subsistence needs such as food, drink, clothing, toiletries, travel and non-prescription medication.
Internal Home Office advice to the Minister, disclosed during the proceedings, revealed that the current rate of £40.85 per week is no longer sufficient to meet basic living needs. Officials recommended repeatedly that in light of rising inflation the rate must be increased in order to protect asylum seekers from destitution. On 15 November 2022 stated categorically that the rate had to be increased immediately to £45 per week. The Home Secretary again did not act on this advice. She provided no reasons or explanation to the Court for this failure, despite the court hearing having been listed for many months.
The legal ruling confirms that the Home Secretary is in breach of the law and is legally required to immediately increase the rate of weekly support. A further judgment on whether the Secretary of State acted unlawfully by using a less accurate methodology for calculating the cost of meeting the essential living needs of asylum seekers is likely to be handed down in the next few weeks. In the event that the Home Secretary refuses to act in light of today’s ruling, the Court is likely to have no choice but to order her to do so.
The case was brought by an asylum seeker, CB, whose name has been anonymized to protect her identity.
Information
Under s95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the Home Secretary has a duty to ensure that asylum seekers can maintain a dignified standard of living for an adequate standard of health and to meet their subsistence needs. This duty involves setting the rate of support at a rate that is adequate to meet essential living needs, and keeping the rate of support under review. CB challenged the decision of the Secretary of State to set this years’ rate of support at £40.85 per person per week (an increase of only £1.22 on the week before) and, in the context of rising costs of living, to fail to review the adequacy of the support provided.
The Claim was issued at the Administrative Court in Manchester in May 2022. Permission to proceed with the claim was granted by Mr Justice Fordham on 26 July 2022. The Secretary of State defended the claim and continued to maintain that she had acted lawfully. The substantive hearing was heard at the Administrative Court in Manchester on 15 December 2022 before Mr Justice Fordham. The legal representatives for the Home Secretary were unable to resist the making of the orders on 15 December. The Judge will provide his reasons in due course.
CB was represented by Jamie Burton KC and Michael Spencer at Doughty Street Chambers instructed by Josie Hicklin at Greater Manchester Law Centre.
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Image shows Manchester Civil Justice court, where the case was held. Photo credit: Michaelmazr, Wikimedia Commons, 2019.
