R (ECPAT UK (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking)) v Kent County Council

Subject Matter

CHILDREN — Children in need — Duty to provide accommodation — Secretary of State and local authority agreeing protocol whereby authority responsible for care of capped number of newly arriving unaccompanied asylum-seeking children — Secretary of State adopting national transfer scheme for transfer of responsibility for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children between local authorities — Whether local authority breaching statutory duties by failing to accommodate and look after all such children in its area — Whether protocol unlawful — Whether practice operated under national transfer scheme ultra vires — Whether Secretary of State having power to direct local authorities to comply with national transfer scheme — Whether Secretary of State having power to accommodate children in need in hotels — Children Act 1989 (c 41), ss 3(5), 17, 20, 22 — Human Rights Act 1998 (c 42), ss 3, 6, Sch 1, Pt I, arts 2, 3 — Immigration Act 2016 (c 19), ss 69, 72

[2023] EWHC 1953 (Admin); [2024] PTSR 243; [2023] WLR(D) 400, KBD

IMMIGRATION — Asylum — Unaccompanied child

[2023] EWHC 2199 (Admin), KBD

Commentary

Free Movement
‘Systematic and routine’ use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is unlawful Case comment

Law Society Gazette
Caring for unaccompanied children Case comment

Doughty Street Chambers
Suspended quashing orders and rolling judicial review as a means of monitoring compliance Case comment