Law digests: 8 April 2022

Citizenship

R (on the application of O (a minor, by her litigation friend AO)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and another case [2022] UKSC 3, [2022] All ER (D) 06 (Feb)

The Supreme Court dismissed the appellants’ appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeal, Civil Division which had held that the fee charged to children applying to be registered as British citizens under the British Nationality Act 1981 fixed at £1,012 pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 (the Regulations), SI 2018/330, made under the Immigration Act 2014 (IA 2014), was lawful. Applying rules of statutory interpretation, the court held that IA 2014 in authorising the Secretary of State to set the fees had not imposed any criterion of affordability. On the contrary, it had expressly empowered the Secretary of State to set fees at levels which (i) took account of benefits likely to accrue from citizenship and (ii) could subsidise the cost of the exercise of other functions in connection with immigration or nationality, thereby