[2024] UKUT 00281 (IAC)

On the question of procedural unfairness, the Respondent submitted that the Applicant had not identified any questions he ought to have been asked at interview but was not.

Any suggestion that the Respondent ought to have taken a further procedural step before reaching its decision ignored the legal principles that any “Doody” duty of fairness was attenuated in points-based system cases, as confirmed in R (Taj) v SSHD [2021] EWCA Civ 19; [2021] Imm AR 748. In terms of any suggestion that the Applicant would have been unprepared to answer questions, he must have known, as someone who was legally represented, that the Respondent wished to consider the genuineness of his business.

On the argument that the Respondent’s decision was irrational, it was plainly rational and open to the Respondent to have concerns about the Applicant’s business’s name, in the context of a longstanding friendship between the Applicant and his client, and where the only income was from that client and payments were made between the two, which had the effect of helping the business’s cashflow. The Respondent did not need to show that it was impossible for genuine businesses to have similar names, or to only have one client, rather that it was open to it to consider these as relevant factors.

The Respondent’s website concerns, namely a lack of functionality, reflected the fact that it was merely a “landing page” without further functions. I issued directions that the Respondent confirm its position that it had considered the correct website, which the Respondent confirmed on 5^th June 2024.