Secretary of State for the Home Department v Suffolk County Council [2020] 3 WLR 742

“This appeal was concerned with the intersection between immigration and asylum cases and family court proceedings, in particular, in relation to the assessment of risk that an individual may be subject to the barbaric practice of Female Genital Mutilation. The case had been referred to the President of the Family Division of the High Court, Sir Andrew McFarlane, to consider two important points of principle, namely: whether a family court judge had jurisdiction to grant injunctive relief against the Home Secretary, constraining the exercise of her powers of immigration control; and whether a finding by the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal in the context of an asylum application constrains the approach of the family court on a subsequent application for a Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order. The Home Secretary was successful on the first point but aggrieved by Sir Andrew’s ruling on the second point and appealed to the Court of Appeal Civil Division …”

ADDED Thursday 19th November 2020