Tribunal decisions

The decision

Upper Tribunal
(Immigration and Asylum Chamber) Appeal Number: PA/03322/2015

THE IMMIGRATION ACTS

Heard at Bennett House, Stoke-on-Trent
Decision & Reasons Promulgated
On 25th November 2016
On 28th November 2016

Before

MR C M G OCKELTON, VICE PRESIDENT
UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE MARTIN

Between

MR AHMED [S]
(Anonymity Direction Not Made)
Appellant
and

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Respondent

Representation:
For the Appellant: Miss S Khan (instructed by Broudie Jackson Canter, Solicitors)
For the Respondent: Mr A McVeety (Senior Home Office Presenting Officer)

DECISION AND REASONS
1. This is an application to the Upper Tribunal by the Appellant, with permission, against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Pickup) promulgated on 2nd September 2016 by which he dismissed the Appellant's appeal against the Secretary of State's refusal of his protection claim.
2. The ground upon which permission to appeal was granted is that the First-tier Tribunal inadvertently erred by failing to address the Appellant's submissions made shortly after the hearing and before the Decision and Reasons was promulgated.
3. The Appellant's claim is that he is in Iraqi national from Mosul and that he cannot return to his home area because it is in a state of internal armed conflict. The Appellant also argued that he cannot relocate to Baghdad as it would be unduly harsh for a Sunni Arab with no connections to Baghdad to relocate there.
4. Counsel for the Appellant sought to persuade the First-tier Tribunal that there had been a deterioration in the security situation in Baghdad since the country guidance case of AA (article 15(c)) Iraq CG [2015] UKUT 00544 (IAC) was heard in May 2015.
5. On the same day that the appeal before Judge Pickup was in progress, 15th August 2016, the Secretary of State published a new guidance note entitled "Country Information and Guidance: Sunni (Arab) Muslims, Iraq, August 2016" which contained information pertinent to the issues under appeal.
6. The Appellant's representatives sent a copy of that guidance together with further submissions to the First-tier Tribunal on 17th August, two days after the hearing. It was hand-delivered to the First-tier Tribunal at Manchester where the hearing had taken place.
7. Notwithstanding those further submissions being made, no reference is made to them or to the new guidance in the Decision and Reasons.
8. It is not possible for us to ascertain for certain, from the file, what happened to those documents but it is clear that that they were not put before Judge Pickup before he determined the appeal and promulgated his decision. The documents are now in the file and are stamped as having been received by the Tribunal on 17th August. They should have been put before the Judge and the failure to do so amounts to a procedural error amounting to an error of law.
9. On behalf of the Secretary of State Mr McVeety accepted that it was an error of law and that the error was material going as it did to the heart of the case, internal relocation to Baghdad. He also agreed that the appropriate way forward was for the Upper Tribunal to set aside the Decision and Reasons in its entirety and to remit the appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for a fresh hearing.
10. We would add that is of considerable concern to us that the Secretary of State issued new guidance directly pertinent to this appeal on the very day of the hearing but the Secretary of State's representative did not bring it to the Tribunal's attention. We should have been inclined to say that it was her duty to do so.
Notice of Decision
The appeal to the Upper Tribunal is allowed to the extent that the Decision and Reasons of the First-tier Tribunal is set aside and the appeal remitted to the First-tier Tribunal for a full rehearing.
There has been no application for an anonymity order and we do not make one

Signed Date 25th November 2016

Upper Tribunal Judge Martin