Amnesty International UK briefing for House of Lords Report on Government HL Bill 148 (Legal Proceedings and Suspensive Claims)

This briefing relates to Clauses 37 to 55 of the Bill, which are brought together under the heading 'Legal Proceedings'. At the core of these provisions is a new suspensive claims procedure, which is intended to be the sole means by which any person - rightly or wrongly treated as within the primary scope and purpose of this Bill - can seek to challenge the Secretary of State's intentions to remove them from the UK.

It is vitally important to understand that the suspensive claims procedure is not designed to enable a person to escape the Bill - unless that person has been wrongly treated as within its primary scope and purpose. The procedure is simply designed to protect against, or give the appearance of protection against, the prospect that a person may be sent to a place where they would face torture, persecution or some other serious harm (refoulement).