High Court to hear argument on lawfulness of short form and visual age assessments

The case of AB v Kent County Council CO/3209/2019 will be heard by Mrs Justice Thornton.

Stuart Luke, Joint Head of Public Law and Community Care at Instalaw, is advising the claimant. He said: “Short form and visual assessments are conducted by local authorities on putative children at police stations and whilst in Home Office detention often within hours or shortly after their arrival into the UK when exhausted and fatigued.

“In many cases they seek to sidestep responsibilities and duties to putative child whilst conducting a Full Merton Age Assessment which were found to be owed by the High Court in my lead case of R (S) v Croydon LBC [2017] EWHC 265 (Admin).”

Phillip Rule of No 5 Chambers, counsel for the claimant, will argue that the same safeguards applied to Full Merton Age Assessments must apply equally to short form assessments thereby ensuring a fairer assessment and proper protections to the young people affected.