Legislation / Legal
HO: The Home Office will appeal against a High Court ruling which found that giving less than 72 hours notice before removing someone from the country is illegal. Following the judgment, the policy of implementing exceptions to the 72 hour notice period will stop, pending the outcome of the appeal.
HO: The government has announced its intention to abolish the 'certificate of approval' scheme. A Remedial Order under the Human Rights Act 1998 has been laid in Parliament to achieve this aim. At present, any migrant who is already in the UK and is subject to immigration control must apply for a ‘certificate of approval’ before they can get married or register a civil partnership in this country (unless they are getting married within the Anglican Church).
The government is now seeking to remedy the declaration by the UK courts that the scheme is incompatible with Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (read with Article 12). Additionally, changes made following rulings from the courts have weakened the scheme and it is no longer an effective method of preventing sham marriage. Applicants will need to follow the current process until further notice.
FCO: Research recently commissioned by the Foreign Office (FCO) showed that a third of people didn’t know that if you take your child abroad without the permission of the other parent, this may be considered abduction under UK law.
The FCO’s Child Abduction Section handled over 200 new cases between April 2009 – March 2010. Many of these involved abductions to countries that have not ratified the 1980 Hague Convention where parents can face great difficulties getting their children returned.
MoJ: Over the past months, the public have been commenting online at the programme for government website to help inform how the coalition government approaches justice in the UK. The Ministry of Justice has listened to what you’ve had to say. You can see the MoJ’s ideas & first steps by reading the response to the programme for government.
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