Part 3: Immigration Offences and Enforcement Immigration Offences and Penalties Section 46: Removals: notice requirements
Overview: This section is intended to provide a statutory minimum period to enable individuals to access justice prior to their removal. It includes the provision of written notices of intention to remove and departure details.
	Background: This section makes provision for removing individuals, following a failed departure or an unsuccessful JR relating to their removal, without the need for a further notice period. In addition, a PRN recipient can be removed in certain circumstances, without the need for a notice period.
	The Secretary of State has a power to remove a person who requires leave to enter or remain in the UK but does not have it from the United Kingdom under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (as amended by the Immigration Act 2014). Those subject to removal include: those refused leave to enter; illegal entrants; overstayers, those whose leave has been cancelled following a breach of their conditions of stay or using deception to remain; former refugees who no longer have leave; crew members remaining unlawfully; and deportees.
	At present, individuals are served a notice, setting out their destination, routing, date, time and airport of their departure (those departing via a charter flight are provided with their destination, routing, and date of departure), but unlike removal directions given to the transport carrier, this is not a statutory requirement.
	The current Home Office guidance on notice periods can be found in the Judicial Reviews and Injunctions guidance. In some cases, individuals are given a minimum of 72 hours’ notice of their removal, and in some cases a minimum of 5 working days.
	This section will amend the current policy, increasing the minimum notice period to 5 working days in all cases (with a limited exception for port cases). The purpose of this is to provide a statutory minimum period and standardise the time to access legal advice.
	Currently, where a person has been given the required notice of removal, but the removal fails or is deferred for certain reasons, a further notice period is not required if the removal can be implemented within 10 days of the failed or deferred removal. This section will place this policy on a statutory basis and increase the timeframe to 21 days, without the need for a fresh notice period.
	This section provides that a PRN recipient can be removed within 21 days following the PRN cut-off date (if no human rights or protection claim was made) or when the individual’s appeal rights have been exhausted (if a human rights or protection claim was made), without a notice period. This is subject to other existing statutory bars on removal.
	Where an initial removal is deferred because of a JR relating to the removal and the court decides that the person can be removed, then they can be removed within 21 days of that decision without receiving a fresh notice period.
	There will be a requirement for a further notice period where the individual is to be removed to a different destination, or there has been a change of route to include a stop, which is not in the UK or a safe country, of which they have not previously been notified.
	Subsections 2 and 3 amend sections 10(1) and (2) of the 1999 Act, making it clear that individuals and their family members (subject to specified conditions) are liable to removal where the individual requires leave to enter or remain in the UK but does not have it.
	Subsection 4 inserts that a person liable to removal under this section can only be removed under the authority of the Secretary of State or an immigration officer and in accordance with subsections 10A to 10E.
	Subsection 6 amends a power for the Secretary of State to make Regulations about the time period during which a family member may be removed and inserts a power to make Regulations about serving removal notices under subsections 10A to 10E.
	Subsection 7 inserts new subsections 10A to 10E. These subsections are not mutually exclusive. 10A provides that before a person who is liable to removal may be removed, they must be given a written notice of intention to remove setting out the destination of removal and a minimum notice period of 5 working days before that removal can occur. They must also be given a written notice of departure details, setting out the date on which the individual will be removed and the destination of their removal, including any stops on their route. These notices can be given separately or can be combined.
	If the person is due to be removed to a different destination or via a different route to that previously notified in the notice of intention to remove, then the individual must be given a new notice period of a minimum of 5 working days with the notice of departure details, unless the route is via the UK or a safe third country.
	The definition of "working day" excludes weekends, national and bank holidays where the person is at the time when they are given the notice of intention to remove.
	10B sets out the scenarios where a further notice period is not required when there has been a previous attempt to remove the individual on the date specified in the notice of departure details, but that removal did not go ahead for reasons reasonably beyond the control of the Secretary of State. The individual can be removed (without a fresh notice period), provided they are removed within 21 days starting with the date of removal specified on the first notice of departure details. This provision only applies in cases which notice of removal has previously been served under subsection 10A.
	10C caters for the limited exception to 10A, for what is known as a port case. A notice period is not required to be given to an individual who was refused entry upon arrival into the UK; provided they can be removed within 7 days of that refusal decision.
	10D provides that a PRN recipient, who did not make a protection or human rights claim before the PRN cut-off date, can be removed within 21 days of the PRN cut-off date without the need for a notice period. Where the PRN recipient does make a protection or human rights claim, they can be removed within 21 days of becoming appeal rights exhausted without the need for a notice period. Note that this is subject to any other statutory bars on removal.
	Under 10E, where the first removal was deferred because of judicial review proceedings relating to the person’s removal, the person can be removed within 21 days of the court deeming that the individual may be removed, without the need for a further notice period.
	Subsection 8 amends Schedule 10 to the Immigration Act 2016. This provides that an individual in detention must not be granted bail by the First-tier Tribunal without the consent of the Secretary of State if their removal is due to take place within 21 days of the bail hearing. This is an increase on the current period which is 14 days. The purpose of the increase is to align with the provisions of new subsections 10A to 10E, which would otherwise be undermined if an individual could successfully be granted bail if their removal was set for the period 15-21 days after their failed removal. Aligning the period reduces the chance for individuals to abscond ahead of their removal.