This clause is about accelerated detained appeals. In moving Amendment 97 I will also cover Amendment 99, both of which I have signed. As I have said, the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, is leading on these amendments, but he has had to leave.
I support the deletion from the Bill of Clauses 26 and 27 in order that claimants should retain a meaningful right of appeal. The Government are trying to revive, though with an even wider scope, the detained fast-track system, despite the fact that their arguments were rejected by the Court of Appeal in 2015 and later by the Tribunal Procedure Committee. These provisions would deny access to justice, including for the reason that five days is far too short for a claimant to prepare an appeal, particularly if they are detained—it is even worse if they are in prison or a detention centre. Clause 26 would apply to a greater number of people even than the detained fast track, including those facing deportation.
The Home Office has been struck down and rebuffed twice but is coming back for more. Its decision-making is frequently flawed and unlawful. As we have heard this afternoon, half of all appeals against immigration decisions were successful in the year to June 2019, so people must have access to effective means of appeal.
After the Court of Appeal declared the detained fast track unlawful in 2015, the Government tried to revive it in tribunal rules. However, the Tribunal Procedure Committee said that if the rules were to operate fairly, which is vital given the high stakes for the claimant, they needed procedural safeguards—an additional case management hearing, for example—such that there was no guarantee of a fast conclusion of the appeal. By trying short cuts, the Government are yet again creating more potential delays. Justice cannot be achieved with the kind of short cuts the Government are trying in this Bill.
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There may be lack of legal aid, difficulty in getting medical or other expert reports or evidence when in detention, and delays by the Home Office in responding to subject access requests. Trying to cut these corners on process, could not only cut corners on justice but end up with the system being more clogged up.
Clause 27 seeks to remove all appeal rights, both in country and out of country, from persons whose claims are classified as “clearly unfounded”. However, as the organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees reminds us, the current out-of-country certification under Section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 was found to be illegal by the Supreme Court in a 2017 case, Kiarie and Byndloss.
Amendments 97 and 99 therefore tighten the conditions for an accelerated appeal. The Secretary of State would have to be satisfied of expeditious disposal within the time limit set in Clause 26(3) in the interests of “fairness and justice”. The tribunal must take an appeal out of the accelerated process—not just “may” but “must”—
“if … concerned that fairness or justice … cannot be”
delivered within it. That is obviously the whole tenor of these amendments; they are about fairness and justice. That is the only way to get real speed, not by these renewed gimmicks. I beg to move.