CA-2025-002338 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1264

There is an equally short answer to ground 2. On an application for judicial review, the court will assess the lawfulness of the decision which is challenged on the basis of the materials which were before the decision-maker at the time of the decision. The court cannot substitute its view of the merits of the decision for that of the decision-maker. In the decision, the Competent Authority invited CTK to put in new evidence, if he wished, in short to plug the gaps which the Competent Authority identified in the decision. It is obvious that request for reconsideration made from inside the United Kingdom, with access to help from his current solicitors, is considerably more valuable to CTK than the possibility of applying for judicial review from France, even if the likely practical difficulties of making such an application from France are ignored, for two reasons: he can rely on new evidence, and he will get a fresh decision about the merits of his claim. The potential availability of an application for judicial review from France is no substitute for a request for reconsideration which the Competent Authority told him, in its decision, he was entitled to make.