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Public Law Solicitors

Serve the Child (8 September 2010)

Date: 08/09/2010
Duncan Lewis, Public Law Solicitors, Serve the Child

by Jonathan Knight

Duncan Lewis have been granted permission for judicial review in an important case that deals with the duty the Secretary of State has to safeguard the interests of minors in her custody.


MM, a Jamaican national, who has resided in the UK with his mother and siblings (who now all have indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom) since 2001, was convicted of a single, serious criminal offence committed in 2006 when he was fifteen years of age and influenced by a gang of older boys. He was sentence to three years and six months imprisonment.

In November 2007 the UK Border Agency wrote to him requesting reasons why he should not be deported. Duncan Lewis responded on his behalf in January 2008. A Notice of Intention to Deport was allegedly served on MM in June 2008 when he was still a minor. He was released from prison in November 2008 and has not re-offended.

A deportation Order was signed against MM in May 2009 with the Home Office delaying service until MM reached the age of majority and he was detained and served with the Deportation Order in February 2010.

Duncan Lewis served a letter before action on the Home Office in March 2010 pointing out that the detention and proposed removal were unlawful since MM denied ever having been served with the Notice of Intention to Deport and that in any event, he was a minor at the time of the alleged service. (MM has also been granted permission on the ground that he denies that he ever received this Notice. However this article focuses on the important argument offered in the alternative; namely that if there was service it was ineffectual on a minor in his circumstances).

No reasonable precautions were taken to ensure that MM understood the ramifications of the Notice of Intention to Deport, (i.e. – that it was THIS document that he had to appeal and not the preliminary request nor the actual Deport Notice, and failing to do so within five days would leave him without an in-country right of appeal) the relevant administrative procedures appear not to have been carried out, and neither his representative nor any other responsible adult had been informed of the service of the document.

A number of judges expressed concern over the fact that MM had effectively been deprived of his right of appeal against deportation.

Permission has now been granted to proceed to a substantive hearing. A separate application for High Court bail lodged on his behalf by Duncan Lewis was granted at the same hearing. An issue of public importance is involved as to the extent to which the Secretary of State is required to adopt procedures for effective notification of appeal Notices upon minors.


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