Commentary on provisions of the Act Section 42: Serious harm suspensive claims
This section sets out the process for the submission and determination of serious harm suspensive claims. The section provides for time limits for the submission of claims and their determination to ensure that the process operates expeditiously so as not to unduly delay removal in cases where a claim is not made out.
	Subsections (1) and (5) set out the requirements for making a valid serious harm suspensive claim. Those requirements are:
	the claim is made within the claim period (as defined in subsection (7)), unless the claim period is extended as provided for in subsection (6);
the claim contains compelling evidence that the serious harm condition is met, that is that the person would face a real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious and irreversible harm and that the harm would arise before the substantive human rights claim has been decided by the Secretary of State or any application for judicial review is exhausted (see definition of "relevant period" in section 39(9));
the claim contains the prescribed information; and
the claim is made in the prescribed form and manner.
	The claim must be made within eight days following receipt of the notice (‘claim period’) and the Secretary of State must make a decision within four days following receipt of the claim (‘decision period’), unless the decision period is extended under subsection (6). In coming to a decision, the Secretary of State must take into account the factors listed in subsection (4). Where the Secretary of State concludes that the claimant would face a real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious and irreversible harm if removed to the country or territory specified in the removal notice, they will not be removed to that country or territory (see section 47(2)). Where the Secretary of State concludes that the person would not, before the Secretary of State’s decision or conclusion of a judicial review in relation to a human rights claim, face a real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious and irreversible harm, the Secretary of State may also certify the claim as clearly unfounded (subsection (3)).
	The refusal of a claim or the certification of a claim as clearly unfounded does not give rise to an appeal under section 82(1)(a) or (b) of the 2002 Act (see section 41(2)), instead provision for appeals is made in section 44 below.