This week the Supreme Court will hear the case of TN (Vietnam) which concerns the status of 10,000 asylum appeals heard under the 2005 Fast Track Rules (“FTR 2005”). Those rules were in force between 2005 and 2014, and governed the procedure by which detained individuals could appeal against the refusal of their asylum. Those rules have since been held to be ultra vires on the grounds that they were systematically unfair.
The Secretary of State successfully argued before the Court of Appeal that the fact that the procedure rules created an “unacceptable risk” of unfairness did not necessarily mean that every case decided pursuant to those ultra vires rules were unfair but instead that each case should be determined individually. TN appeals to the Supreme Court against that decision.
Natasha Barnes, led by Robin Tam QC, is acting for the Secretary of State. Read more about the case here.