New Immigration and Asylum Practice Direction

The new Practice Direction of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal came into force on 1 November 2024. The Practice Direction makes several changes to how appeals should be prepared including a number of particular relevance to expert witnesses such as:

• The Practice Direction emphasises that expert reports should be as concise as possible, noting that "[l]engthy and discursive commentary which is not directly relevant to the disputed issues is not conducive to the proportionate despatch of judicial business in accordance with the Overriding Objective of the Procedure Rules and procedural rigour."

• The length of expert reports is capped at 20 pages, with permission required for addendums or longer reports. The text  must be no less than size 12 font with 1.5 line spacing).

• Additional provisions relating to country information evidence emphasising the importance of Country Guidance cases with country background information only necessary where there is no applicable country guidance or the party is arguing that the Tribunal should depart from the established country guidance.

• A party relying on material within a country guidance decision or additional country background information must provide a 'country schedule'.