Annual tribunals’ review highlights 53% increase in workload of First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)

Courts and
Tribunals Judiciary

Senior President of Tribunals' Annual Report

2024

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Upper Tribunal

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Immigration and Asylum Chamber

President: Mr Justice Ian Dove

The jurisdictional landscape

The theme of the continual challenge presented by changes to immigration law and practice continues from last year's report. The unprecedented scale of the preparation required for the implementation of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 saw the training of a very significant number of judges, including a large number of colleagues from First-tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) (FtTIAC).

We are indebted to our training judges, Upper Tribunal Judges (UTJ) Frances and O'Callaghan, for compiling and co-ordinating the comprehensive programme of training which was required to ensure that the judges were fully prepared. Working in partnership with our colleagues in HMCTS, new courts were commissioned for the work alongside improvements to IT and the recruiting of additional staff to support the case progression work which this initiative required. It was a Herculean effort and demonstrated the powerful potential for change which can be accomplished by close collaboration between judges and HMCTS staff. The state of readiness remains a lasting achievement for which all who were involved can take great credit.

Particular topics that are featuring in the Upper Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) (UTIAC) caseload regularly include the jurisdiction in relation to deprivation appeals (as reported last year). In relation to international protection, guidance has been provided in the case of JCK v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] UKUT 00100 in relation to the provisions of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 pertaining to the proof of refugee status. The departure of the UK from the EU and the provisions put in place as a consequence continue to provide a source of casework. In particular, the application of the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to the circumstances of deportation cases was the subject of detailed consideration in Abdullah v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] UKUT 00066.

The question of the compliance of the legislation relating to immigration bail and electronic tagging with Article 8 of the ECHR was examined in detail in the recent case of R(on the application of Nelson) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] 00141. The need for procedural rigour in the appeals heard in the IAC has also been a continuing theme this year in cases such as Maleci v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] 00028.

UTJ Rintoul has recently taken over as the chair of our Reporting Committee which ensures that cases providing important decisions are identified and publicised appropriately.

Diversity, inclusion and wellbeing

The active and continuing work on diversity, inclusion and wellbeing is firmly embedded in the approach to all of our activities in UTIAC. This work is supervised by our Diversity and Inclusion Committee which is chaired by UTJ Bruce.

During the past year UTIAC judges, led by UTJ Kamara, participated in campaigns to recruit new salaried and Deputy UTIAC judges. The campaign was preceded by an extensive outreach programme to increase the diversity of the potential candidates for the competitions and encourage people to apply. The salaried posts were made available for those requiring fractional working and many of those successful in the competition have taken advantage of this.

The salaried and Deputy judges are all supported by the work of our Welfare Committee which is chaired by UTJ Norton-Taylor. This committee allocates each of our judges to small groups, called welfare pods, to enable regular informal support and assistance to be provided. The Welfare Committee also tackles wider issues affecting the quality of the working environment for our judges.

Again, we are indebted to our training judges, UTJ Frances and O'Callaghan, for preparing and implementing a training programme for more than 70 new judges who have joined us. Making all of our new judges feel welcome and at home is key initiative for all of us at the time of writing.

UTIAC, particularly through the hard work and energy of UTJ Bruce, continues to play a very active part in the Advocates for Change initiative alongside welcoming students and aspiring lawyers from a wide variety of backgrounds to marshal with our judges. Strong links have been built with a number of universities including Queen Mary University London, Goldsmiths University London, Manchester Metropolitan University, Wolfson College Cambridge and Liverpool University to provide their students with opportunities to observe cases and discuss the work of UTIAC with the judges. UTIAC judges act as mentors to prospective judges through the various schemes available to encourage people from non-traditional backgrounds to apply for judicial appointment.

A further key element of this work is fostering the career progression and development of our judges, as well as ensuring that their caseload is meeting their expectations and aspirations. To that end, regular one-to-one sessions are held with judges to discuss these issues. A recent initiative has been launched to re-examine the distribution of complex cases to ensure they are fairly and transparently allocated. Our deputy judges are supervised by UTJ Gleeson and UTJs Sheridan and Kamara, who have recently fully revised the comprehensive handbook for deputies and who oversee the provision of mentors to support deputies. There is a programme of appraisal for the deputies run by UTJ McWilliam assisted by UTJ Jackson.

People and places

Field House continues to provide the London home of UTIAC, and in December we were pleased to welcome a visit from the Lady Chief Justice during which she met the staff and had lunch with the judiciary. More recently, Field House was visited by Nick Goodwin, the Chief Executive of HMCTS, who took time to discuss current issues with the judiciary as well as spend time with the staff. Again, this was very much appreciated by all who had the chance to meet him.

UTIAC is very fortunate to have highly dedicated and hard-working staff who support our operations. In the last year they have successfully implemented 'mandation' or the new requirement that all represented parties upload their documents to the CE-file system, which has assisted an improvement in efficiency. The judiciary are heavily dependent on the important work of our lawyers and legal officers who are integrally involved in case management and case progression and we are continually grateful for the invaluable support that they provide.

We continue to seek to expand our operations in the regions and have in recent days established a new Regional Cabinet, chaired by UTJ Mandalia and supported by liaison judges in each of the regions, to manage and develop our work outside London. Again, the regional staff and lawyers are instrumental in this endeavour and we are very appreciative of the support that they provide.

This year has seen the retirements of a number of our distinguished judicial colleagues. UTJ Kopieczek, who served with distinction as our Principal Resident Judge during the pandemic, has recently retired, along with Deputy Principal Resident UTJ Pitt. After leading our operations in Scotland for many years, UTJ Macleman has now retired, and, after many years of distinguished service, so have UTJs Gill and Pickup. This year has also seen the retirement of Vice President Mark Ockelton who will be greatly missed, having devoted many years to the enhancement of the prestige of this jurisdiction and the intellectual rigour of its work. His contribution to UTIAC and its predecessors cannot be overstated. We wish all these colleagues a long, healthy and fulfilling retirement.

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First-tier Tribunal

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Immigration and Asylum Chamber

President: Judge Melanie Plimmer

The jurisdictional landscape

The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) ('FtTIAC') conducts appeals against decisions of the Secretary of State relating to international protection, deportation, the EU Settlement Scheme, deprivation of citizenship and human rights. FtTIAC also deals with bail applications by applicants held in immigration detention and foreign national offenders.

In 2023/24, FtTIAC receipts increased by 53% to 58,000, compared with 2022/23. This mirrors an increase in Home Office decision-making of asylum claims. It is expected that asylum appeals will continue to significantly increase, alongside the outstanding caseload. Such appeals often involve vulnerable appellants and detailed evidence of difficult and traumatic events including torture, persecution and family separation, and are among the more complex and demanding of our caseload.

A salient feature of the work over the past year has been an increase in the number of deprivation of citizenship appeals. Again, these are among our more difficult cases, with guidance from the higher courts still emerging.

Appeals must be determined pursuant to a changing and complex legal landscape, often in the public eye, including changes to Refugee Convention interpretation in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 ('NABA') and preparation for the Illegal Migration Act 2023 ('IMA'). This has demanded intense preparation and planning on the part of leadership judges, training leads and subject leads, working in collaboration with the Upper Tribunal ('UT'), the MOJ, HMCTS and the Judicial College.

The year has embedded changes to judicial working practices, consistent with the 'Programme for Change' I referred to in last year's report. The overarching aim to re-focus preparation, hearings and written decisions through a more issues-based and structured lens, has been bolstered by a judicial toolkit of up-to-date online guidance and support for judges in the main subject areas of FtTIAC work. This has been the result of the hard work of judicial subject leads under the supervision of the training team, led by Resident Judge (RJ) Julian Phillips and his deputies RJ Holmes and Judge Landes.

After many years of unstinting commitment to training, Judge Holmes has stood down and Judge Landes was appointed to the Upper Tribunal. The new deputy training leads are Judge Athwal and Judge Buchanan.

An integral part of the Programme for Change is the foundation of an Improvement Group which works closely with the Upper Tribunal and whose focus is on procedural rigour in the IAC through collaboration with relevant stakeholders including the Home Office and the Immigration Law Practitioners Association ('ILPA'). This has led to improved working relationships, specific commitments to reflect on and improve the quality of decisions under appeal before the FtTIAC.

The FtTIAC Virtual Region ('the VR') has successfully corralled appeals that can be heard and dealt with in a just and effective way by remote means, increasing the Chamber's overall hearing capacity. It has been possible to shorten the time usually taken between inception of the appeal and delivery of the written decision, leading to greater efficiency and making best use of the available UK-wide judicial resource, with deployment to virtual lists not necessarily tied to a particular hearing centre or region.

The judicial leads have sought to work closely with HMCTS colleagues to ensure appeals are listed, heard and determined in a manner that is both efficient and fair. This has included collaborative working on detained appeals. FtTIAC has closely analysed its caseload of deportation and detained appeals to identify means of ensuring the appeal journey can be shortened wherever possible. Its recommendations have been fed into a multi-agency improvement group leading to the reduction of obstacles to effective hearings and a streamlined detained process map has been developed.

Diversity, inclusion and wellbeing

Proactive efforts have been made to ensure the Chamber benefits from the diversity and inclusion of its judicial family through lunch-time training and talks on a variety of subjects including resilience and mindfulness. This has been spearheaded by the Diversity and Inclusion Committee under the leadership of RJ Grant-Hutchison, working together with the training team.

There have been many hearing centre gatherings, including legal officer certification ceremonies and judicial swearing-in ceremonies. These have involved judges, legal officers and administrative staff celebrating together. We were delighted to welcome the Senior President to the Taylor House London Centre twice during the year. The Senior President was able to observe a full day of hearings, meet legal officers and judges, and conduct the swearing-in ceremony for the President and RJ Feeney.

The Chamber has run a further series of focus groups for fee-paid and salaried judges to develop flexible working. The Diversity and Inclusion Committee has also assisted in building on local initiatives to involve outside groups in the work of judges. Special mention must be made of Judge Meyler who worked tirelessly with a wide cross-section of judges across the jurisdictions to produce two successful conferences for Liverpool law students from non-traditional backgrounds.

People and places

This has been a particularly busy year for judicial deployment and movements. We have welcomed 23 new salaried judges.

Two very popular and experienced RJs retired: RJ Campbell (Taylor House, London) and RJ Davidge (Birmingham). Judge Campbell continues to be part of the FtTIAC judicial family by sitting in retirement. Two new RJs have been appointed following a JAC selection exercise: RJ Frantzis (Manchester) and RJ Feeney (Taylor House). Both have made impressive starts in their centre leadership role, as well as their national lead roles assisting the President. Acting RJs Chohan and Hughes job-share the RJ role in Birmingham.

We have also said goodbye to five salaried judges (Judges Bulpitt, Grey, Landes, Lodato and O'Brien) and seven fee-paid judges (Judges Hoffman, Loughran, Mahmood, Meah, Pinder, Rastogi, Neville and Ruddick) who have taken up appointments in the Upper Tribunal. 18 salaried and 16 fee-paid judges have been appointed Deputy Upper Tribunal judges. We wish them all the best.

We also thank the 26 salaried Judges who have retired in the last year for their service to the Chamber and wish them a healthy and happy retirement.

Finally, we pay tribute to Judge Samimi, a much-loved colleague at Hatton Cross, who sadly passed away on 27 February 2024.

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© Crown copyright 2024

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