Yesterday, the High Court declined to rule on the lawfulness of a near £1,000 fee preventing many children registering the British citizenship to which they are legally entitled.
The fee is a barrier to tens of thousands of children from claiming their citizenship.
The court acknowledged, having received substantial evidence, that thousands of children are affected. However, the judge acceded to the Home Office request that the case should not proceed arguing that it had become ‘academic’ for the individual claimant because after being granted permission to bring the case she had been supported by a donation from the public to pay the fee. The Home Office had then registered her as British.
Solange Valdez-Symonds, Director of the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC), speaking after the hearing, said:
“This is a body blow to the hopes of children and campaigners that the court would bring to an end the Home Office policy of charging an exorbitant fee – far higher than the actual cost of processing the registration of these children’s citizenship – which prevents many children exercising the right Parliament gave them to be British.
“The prospect that children must continue to rely on the generosity of someone donating the cost of the fee or the hope that they can find a lawyer willing to bring an expensive judicial review challenge is dismal.
“For many neither will be an option, and this scandalously high fee will bar them from the citizenship that is theirs by right leaving them at risk – as was the case for the claimant before these proceedings were brought – of the Home Office seeking to remove them from the country that is their home, where they were born, and where they should be recognised as a citizen.
“Meanwhile, many of these children are also left widely excluded, particularly as they approach adulthood, from such vital things as healthcare, higher educational opportunities and employment.
“PRCBC will not be deterred by this set back. The support, including outside the court, has been hugely encouraging; and I am sure the disappointment of today’s judgment will only be a further spur to action to bring to an end the injustice of this fee and ensure all children entitled to British citizenship can claim it.”
Notes to editors:
- The claimant’s legal team are: Solange Valdez-Symonds, Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (solicitor) and Amanda Weston, Garden Court Chambers (barrister).
- The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) was founded by Solange Valdez-Symonds and Carol Bohmer in 2012, and is the leading organisation in the UK dedicated to securing the rights of children to British citizenship through litigation, advocacy and campaigning.
- Solange Valdez-Symonds is the Children’s Rights Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2017. She is a solicitor with eleven years post-qualification experience.
- Yesterday’s case was brought by permission of the High Court, which accepted that an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal in R (Williams) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 98 concerning previous legislation in respect of fees was distinguishable. The child’s case was funded by the Legal Aid Agency on the basis that it was a matter of public interest, of importance to many children beyond the individual child. She is still considering next steps, including whether to seek permission to appeal against the judgment.
- The fee for a child to register her right to British citizenship is £973. The Home Office asserts that £386 of this constitutes the administrative cost of registration.
- Academic research indicates there are tens of thousands of children in the United Kingdom without, but entitled to, British citizenship. The consequences for these children, increasingly as they near or reach adulthood, can include being unable to access higher education, employment, rented accommodation, a bank account or passport; and action by the Home Office to detain and remove them.
Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC)
For Amnesty International UK blog and press release:
High Court refuses to rule on ‘utterly shameful’ £1,000 child citizenship fee, 24/11/2017
How the government profiteers from children needing to register as British citizens, 20/11/2017
