On 17 December 2025, the High Court handed down judgment in R (ABW) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 3280 (Admin), clarifying the interpretation and scope of the Home Secretary’s obligations towards potential victims of trafficking (“PVoTs”).
A PVoT in receipt of a Reasonable Grounds decision must be provided with recovery support and should not be removed from the UK. Section 63(1) of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (“NABA”), however, gives the Home Secretary a power to make public order disqualification (“POD”) decisions, excluding PVoTs from those protections on public order grounds.
The Claimant, a national of Trinidad and Tobago who had been in the UK since 2001, challenged a POD decision made in his case on 11 October 2024 (“the Decision”).
In a significant ruling, Mr Justice Morris found both the Decision and parts of the Home Secretary’s Modern Slavery Act Guidance (“the Guidance”) to be unlawful. His Lordship held in particular that:
- The Home Secretary is under an obligation under NABA and the Guidance to complete the victim identification process in respect of an individual who is the subject of a POD decision, for so long as that person remains in the UK. The Home Secretary had to date failed to fulfil this obligation.
- The discretion under NABA s 63 is to be construed compatibly with Article 13(3) of the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (“ECAT”). Parts of the Guidance effectively imposed a presumption in favour of making a POD, precluding the decision-maker from assessing whether to apply his or her discretion on a case-by-case basis. Those parts of the Guidance were unlawful, constituting a misapplication of NABA s 63(1) and (2) and a fettering of discretion.
The judgment can be read here.
On 9 February 2026, Mr Justice Morris refused the Home Secretary’s application for a stay of the judgment, agreeing with the Claimant and First Intervener’s submissions that there were no solid grounds for the imposition of a stay (an application for an “interim” stay having similarly been rejected at a hearing of 17 December 2025). His Lordship also refused the Home Secretary’s application for permission to appeal.
Sarah Hannett KC acted for the Second Intervener, the Speaker of the House of Commons, instructed by Office of Speaker’s Counsel.
Robbie Stern acted for the First Intervener, Anti-Slavery International, led by Naina Patel KC and instructed by Freshfields.