Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many grants of leave were made on the basis of Article 3 of the ECHR on medical grounds in each of the last three years; and what assessment she has made of the potential effect of Part 2 of the Immigration and Asylum Bill on the number of Article 3 claims.

The Home Office does not publish data on the number of grants of leave made on the basis of Article 3 of the ECHR. It may be raised in a range of applications, including protection claims or human rights claims.

Article 3 of the ECHR prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It is an absolute right, meaning it cannot be balanced against the public interest, national security concerns, criminality or immigration control objectives.

Article 8, relating to family and private life, addresses a different Convention right. It is a qualified right and is therefore subject to different legal thresholds. The reforms in Part 2 in the Immigration and Asylum Bill will strengthen the public interest test under Article 8.

They do not lower the extremely high threshold that must be met to engage Article 3 nor translate to the same considerations under Article 3. As a result, we do not expect the Article 8 reforms to generate a corresponding impact increase in successful Article 3 claims