Children adequate best interests’ assessment: Whether the Secretary of State has a Section 55(1) proactive duty of enquiry

It is all about context,  said the Upper Tribunal in Ahmed and Others (deprivation of citizenship) [2017] UKUT 00118 (IAC), in declining to find in that appeal that the Secretary  of State owed a Section 55(1)  proactive duty of enquiry in relation to the  consideration of the  welfare and best interests of the children.

 

The conjoined appeals in Ahmed had their origins in a series of decisions made by the Secretary of State proposing to deprive the Appellants of their British citizenship under section 40(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981. Within the  course  of the appeals however,  the Upper Tribunal had to consider the  content of the duty owed by the Secretary of State under section 55(1) of the 2009 Act in the Appellant’s cases.

 

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