as Soon as Practicable in UK Law

There may well be uncertainty at the time of notification as to what the precise problems or potential problems are; there well may be, whether known, or unknown, to the assured a “hornets' nest” which may give rise to numerous types of claims of presently unknown quantum and character at the date of the notification.

In my judgment the notification given to the following Lloyd's market was not given as soon as practicable and therefore was not compliant with the time requirements of GC4. Notice which was not given until 24 July 2002 almost 3 months after the expiry of the policy period, cannot, on any realistic basis, be regarded as given “as soon as practicable”, if the start date is taken as 27 March 2002.

She said that this was a higher duty than they owed to other persons on their housing list; and so Mr. Hendy should be given priority over them. I cannot accept that submission. I think that the Corporation fulfil their duty when they do their best, as soon as practicable, to get him other accommodation. His circumstances must be considered along with the others and a fair decision made between them.

Section 34 must receive effect where the decision was one against which there was a right of appeal under the statute. In the case of those decisions, the remedy of habeas corpus must be taken to have been excluded by the clear and unequivocal wording of section 34.

Section 55 of the 2002 Act now provides that the Secretary of State 'may not provide or arrange for the provision of support' to a person making a claim for asylum where he 'is not satisfied that the claim was made as soon as reasonably practicable after the person's arrival in the United Kingdom'.

In the light of the considerations discussed above, we would define the test of whether an asylum seeker has claimed asylum 'as soon as reasonably practicable' as follows: 'On the premise that the purpose of coming to this country was to claim asylum and having regard both to the practical opportunity for claiming asylum and to the asylum seeker's personal circumstances, could the asylum seeker reasonably have been expected to claim asylum earlier than he or she did?'

Fairness will very often require that a person who may be adversely affected by the decision will have an opportunity to make representations on his own behalf either before the decision is taken with a view to producing a favourable result: or after it is taken, with a view to procuring its modification; or both.