IA015112014

The grounds of appeal to the Upper Tribunal refer to the First-tier Tribunal�s failure to make �a decision to set removal directions under section 47 UK Borders Act 2007�. This reference is repeated in the grant of permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal. However, that section is concerned with �police civilians�. It does not therefore have any obvious application to the issue of the appellant�s removal from the United Kingdom. I shall therefore assume that the intended reference was to the section 47 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.

There was no appearance by or on behalf of the appellant at the hearing before me on the 18 th July 2014. I was nevertheless satisfied that the appellant had been served with notice of the time, date and place of the hearing. I therefore decided that it would be just to proceed to determine the appeal without further delay.

The grounds of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal simply asserted that, �the Section 47 decision is unreasonable in all the circumstances�. No particulars of the alleged �unreasonableness� were provided.

Section 47 of the 2006 Act, as substituted by Section 51 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, permits the Secretary of State to refuse an application for further leave to remain and simultaneously to issue directions for the applicant�s removal. The exercise of that power cannot be challenged on appeal to the Tribunal unless it amounts to an irrational exercise of discretion, thus rendering it �not in accordance with the law�.

The appeal against the respondent�s decision to remove the appellant from the United Kingdom is dismissed.