[2024] UKUT 00143 (IAC)
Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber

[2024] UKUT 00143 (IAC)

Fecha: 04-Mar-2024

The Secretary of State appealed Mostyn J’s judgment which came before the Court of Appeal on 7 December 2021. By its judgment dated 25 January 2022 ( [2022] EWCA Civ 37 ) the Court allowed the Secreta

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The Secretary of State appealed Mostyn J’s judgment which came before the Court of Appeal on 7 December 2021. By its judgment dated 25 January 2022 ([2022] EWCA Civ 37) the Court allowed the Secretary of State’s appeal so far as that concerned the position under EU law ([57] of the judgment). However, the Court went on to point out that, when framing the definition in Annex 1 to Appendix EU, the Secretary of State may have intended to reflect the pre-existing position under Regulation 16. Accordingly, the Court went on to consider what was the pre-existing position under Regulation 16. This argument turned on the distinction between the reference to “indefinite leave” in the definition under Regulation 16(7) and the reference to “leave to enter or remain” in the Annex 1 definition. As the Court pointed out, it was always open to the Secretary of State to go beyond what EU law requires when formulating the position in domestic law. If that is what she had intended when drafting Regulation 16(7) then the definition in Appendix EU would not reflect the pre-existing position. The Court concluded at [66] of the judgment that “whatever the contextual considerations, the language of regulation 16(7)(c)(iv) is simply too clear to allow it to be construed as covering persons with limited leave to remain”. The conclusion in Akinsanya therefore turned on the Court’s interpretation of Regulation 16(7).