R (on the application of AZ) v Hampshire County Council (AAJR) Not applicable

R (on the application of AZ) v Hampshire County Council (AAJR) [2013] UKUT 87(IAC)

For the Respondent: Mr Charles Bourne and Mr Benjamin Tankel, instructed by Hampshire County Council

The claimant (to whom I shall hereafter refer to as AZ) challenges an age assessment dated 6 January 2012 carried out by Hampshire County Council (the defendant). The age assessment concluded that the claimant's date of birth is 6 January 1993 (indicating that AZ would have been 19 years old at the time of the assessment).� AZ claims that he was born on 10 January 1996 and that he was, therefore, four days short of his 16 th birthday on 6 January 2012.

Permission was granted by Mr Justice Foskett on 24 April 2012.� Directions were subsequently made in the Upper Tribunal by Mr C M G Ockelton (Vice President) on 30 May 2012.� The hearing took place at Manchester Civil Justice Centre on 3-5 December 2012 when Mr Adam Fullwood of Counsel appeared for AZ and Mr Charles Bourne of counsel and Mr Benjamin Tankel of Counsel appeared for Hampshire County Council.

Neither party to these proceedings carries any burden of proof.� It is for the tribunal to determine whether the applicant was a child at the material time with reference to all relevant evidence and applying the standard of proof of the balance of probabilities (see R (CJ) v Cardiff County Council ) [2011] EWCA Civ 1590 ). My attention has been drawn to a number of recent authorities to which I shall refer in the analysis which appears below.� The Court of Appeal in R (CJ) observed: