Delays for Rwanda challenge?
Judge demands to know when removals will begin
A senior High Court judge has ordered the government to disclose the earliest date on which it intends to begin removing asylum-seekers to Rwanda.
Mr Justice Chamberlain made the order last Thursday, although it was not seen by reporters until yesterday. It followed Rishi Sunak’s announcement last week that flights would begin taking off “in July”.
This provided “insufficient clarity”, the judge said. Earlier, the government had said removals might begin before the end of June. Subsequently, the prime minister confirmed that no flights would be taking off before the election on 4 July.
Chamberlain, shortly to become the judge in charge of the Administrative Court list, had originally ordered an urgent hearing next week in a claim against the government brought by a trade union representing senior managers and professionals in public service. The FDA is challenging guidance issued to civil servants by the Cabinet Office which tells officials what they should do if a minister refuses to respect interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights.
As I reported earlier this month, the government responded to the union’s challenge by acknowledging that removing asylum-seekers to Rwanda in those circumstances could put the United Kingdom in breach of international law.
Giving reasons for the order he made last week, Chamberlain said:
The timetable for this claim was set on the basis that removals to Rwanda would begin at the earliest on 1 July 2024. The government then changed its position, saying that removals could begin in the week commencing 24 June 2024.
Following the announcement of a general election, the prime minister has said that removals will begin “in July”. That provides insufficient clarity for the purposes of timetabling this claim.
The above direction seeks the clarity required for timetabling purposes.
The judge’s order required a government response by last Friday afternoon. No response has yet been published and a further order from the judge is awaited.
Comment
Chamberlain knows as well as everybody else that Labour will immediately abandon the government’s Rwanda policy if it wins power. He would not want to waste everybody’s time by holding a hearing next week that may prove to be entirely academic. He would also understand the sensitivities of hearing a challenge brought on behalf of civil servants to a policy on which the government is fighting an imminent election.
As a judge, he cannot make any public assumptions about which party will win. But there seems every chance that the hearing planned for next week will not take place before 8 July, if at all.
Update 2030: it emerged this afternoon that a further order was made yesterday extending the original deadline to 12 noon yesterday.
The judge disclosed that next week’s hearing had been scheduled for Thursday 6 June. That hearing had not been cancelled.
In extending the deadline last Friday, Chamberlain said:
The timetable for this claim was set on the basis that removals to Rwanda would begin at the earliest on 1 July 2024. The government then changed its position, saying that removals could begin in the week commencing 24 June 2024.
Following the announcement of a general election, the prime minister has said that removals will begin “in July”. That provides insufficient clarity for the purposes of timetabling this claim.
Accordingly, in my order of 23 May 2024, I directed the defendants and interested party to state by 4pm today the earliest date on which the Government intend to begin removals to Rwanda. They are apparently unable at present to do so.
However, the order was only served this morning, so an extension to 12 noon on the next working day is appropriate. The parties should continue to prepare for the existing hearing, fixed for 6 June 2024.
A subsequent order was made and published today. Chamberlain indicated that he had received two letters from the government legal department.
Yesterday’s letter said the government did not intend to carry out enforced removals to Rwanda before the general election on 4 July 2024.
Today’s letter — written, presumably in response to a question from the court — said the government was not asking for the hearing next week to be adjourned.
In the light of these responses, the judge explained, the reasons given on 3 May for hearing this claim on an expedited basis continued to apply. “There is no sufficient reason to adjourn the hearing listed for 6 June 2024,” he concluded.
For these reasons, he added, the hearing fixed for 6 June would proceed as listed.