Mahad
[2009] UKSC 16, [2010] 1 WLR 48, Lord Brown stated: “10. The Rules are not to be construed with all the strictness applicable to the construction of a statute or a statutory instrument but, instead, sensibly according to the natural and ordinary meaning of the words used, recognising that they are statements of the ECO 's administrative policy.” 27. Having regard to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6 th Ed, 2007), we find that the term “exist” is defined in the following terms: “Have objective reality or being. Have being in a specified place or form or under specified conditions. Of a relation, circumstance, etc.: be found, subsisted. Continue alive or in being; maintain existence.” 28. In our view, whilst the term “subsisted” is referred to, the definition as a whole inclines towards a meaning consistent with a state of affairs simply having an objective factual basis, without the added qualitative ingredient contended for by the ECO . 29. The term “subsisted” is attributed the following meanings: “Of a material or abstract thing: exist, have a real existence; remain in being, continue to exist, last.” 30. The use of the word “real” in the definition would appear to lend weight to the argument that “subsisted” implies a qualitative characteristic go ing beyond a purely objective state of affairs. 31. With the above in mind, it is self-evident that the term which would support the ECO’s case, namely “subsisted”, is not used in para 352A(iii). We take it as a robust starting point that the precise words used in a particular Rule are the result of deliberate drafting decisions. (See, for example,