Immigration Appeals: Fair Decisions, Faster Justice

UK Border Agency consultation paper

President of the Queen’s Bench Division (PQBD) response

The proposals in the Consultation Paper are strongly supported. The judges of the Administrative Court, the court most directly affected, were invited to provide an input into this response. The only reaction received from them has been one of warm endorsement of the proposals. There has been no opposition to the proposals.

• PQBD full response

Master of the Rolls (MoR) Private Office response

Since 2005 the Court of Appeal (CoA) has seen a 77% increase in applications for permission to appeal from AIT cases. As highlighted in the PQBD’s response, the majority of these applications and appeals are from reconsiderations by ordinary Immigration Judges that raise no point of general importance. The influx of these cases has put significant pressure on the resources of the CoA both in terms of the numbers office staff and lawyers who must prepare the cases for the Court and perhaps more importantly, in terms of judicial time; it is wholly disproportionate for these cases to be considered by the most senior judges who sit in the Court of Appeal.

• MoR full response