In R (FD) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (15 December 2025) the Administrative Court quashed a notice issued to an airline refusing an authority to carry the claimant back to the United Kingdom. It also quashed the withdrawal of an e-Visa which had been issued to the claimant and gave other related relief. The claimant had previously been notified in writing that he has indefinite leave to remain and could go abroad and return provided he did so within two years. He had gone abroad for a short holiday in reliance upon that representation. He was then prevented from returning by the refusal of the ‘authority to carry’ issued to the airline which was to carry him back to the United Kingdom. His eVisa, showing he has settled status, was also peremptorily withdrawn without notice. These actions were apparently taken on the basis that there was an allegedly extant deportation order pre-dating the notice given to him that he has indefinite leave to remain which, it was said, had been mistakenly given. The court held, amongst other things, that, despite a past serious criminal offence, the claimant had not been said by the defendant to be a person who posed any risk at all, let alone the type of a risk that the Authority to Carry Scheme 2023 Scheme sought to control. It also held that a legitimate expectation that the claimant would be entitled to return had been unlawfully defeated. The defendant would be entitled to seek to correct the mistake, providing that this did not unfairly breach the legitimate expectation. The court ordered defendant to take steps to ensure the claimant was allowed to return to the UK where he has lived for the past 32 years.
The case is understood to be the first case to deal with the scope of the Authority to Carry Scheme 2023, made under s22 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. It is another example of on-going problems with the operation of the new eVisa regime introduced in 2024.
Manjit S. Gill KC of No5 Chambers leading Tony Muman, represented the Claimant, instructed by Sanjeev Sharma of J M Wilson Solicitors
