Lead member
Lord Etherton
Crossbench, Life peer
Lords
Decision
Agreed
This amendment was agreed to. Where a member has given notice of their intention to oppose a Clause/Schedule standing part of a Bill, 'agreed' indicates that the Clause/Schedule was removed from the Bill.
Amendment text
Clause 38
Leave out Clause 38 and insert the following new Clause—
“Serious harm suspensive claims: interpretation
(1)
The definitions in subsections (2) and (3) have effect for the purposes of section 37, this section and sections 39 to 51.
(2)
A “serious harm suspensive claim” means a claim by a person (“P”) who has been given a third country removal notice that the serious harm condition is met in relation to P.
(3)
The “serious harm condition” is that P would face a real risk of serious harm if removed from the United Kingdom under this Act to the country or territory specified in the third country removal notice.
(4)
The following are examples of harm that constitute serious harm for the purposes of this Act—
(a)
death;
(b)
persecution falling within subsection (2)(a) or (b) of section 31 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (read together with subsections (1) and (3) of that section) (Article 1(A)(2) of the Refugee Convention: persecution) where P is not able to avail themselves of protection from that persecution;
(c)
torture;
(d)
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(e)
onward removal from the country or territory specified in the third country removal notice to another country or territory where P would face a real risk of any harm mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (d).
(5)
For the purposes of subsection (4)—
(a)
protection from persecution can be provided by—
(i)
the government of the relevant country or territory, or
(ii)
any party or organisation, including any international organisation, controlling the relevant country or territory or a substantial part of it;
(b)
P is to be taken to be able to avail themselves of protection from persecution if—
(i)
the government, party or organisation mentioned in paragraph (a) takes reasonable steps to prevent the persecution by operating an effective legal system for the detection, prosecution and punishment of acts constituting persecution, and
(ii)
P is able to access the protection.”
Member's explanatory statement
This revised version of Clause 38: (1) removes any reference to “the relevant period”, (2) removes any reference to irreversibility of harm, and (3) removes examples of harm that do not constitute or are unlikely to constitute serious and irreversible harm.