High Court grants permission in Child Spies challenge; Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC and Sam Jacobs act for claimant

The High Court has granted Just for Kids Law permission to challenge the lawfulness of the Home Office’s regime for the use of children as Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS). Mr Justice Lavender rejected the Home Secretary’s submissions and agreed that the claim is arguable, and “concern[s] an ongoing state of affairs.”  

The judicial review is brought by NGO Just for Kids Law, which specialises in the representation and support of children and young people in legal difficulty, including in the criminal justice system. Just for Kids Law is concerned that the Government is allowing children – some under the age of 16 – to be used by the police and other investigative agencies as spies in covert investigations. The Government has recently indicated that it considers there to be “increasing scope” for child CHISes to be used in the most grave and dangerous of contexts, including in assisting the investigation and prosecution of serious offences such as terrorism offences, gang violence, county lines drugs offences and child sexual exploitation. This raises serious concerns regarding the welfare, well-being and safety of children recruited and deployed as child CHISes. In these judicial review proceedings Just for Kids Law argues that the scheme as a whole, and the absence of adequate safeguards, violate the Home Secretary’s obligations to children under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Doughty Street barristers Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC and Sam Jacobs act for Just for Kids Law, the claimant, instructed by Jennifer Twite, the Head of Strategic Litigation at the organisation.

The use of children as spies by the police and other investigative agencies has caused a great deal of controversy since it was revealed in a House of Lords debate in July 2018. Parliamentarians and human rights groups have raised concerns about the lack of safeguards to protect young people from physical and emotional harm. The judicial review proceedings were then launched by Just for Kids Law in November 2018, following a successful crowdfunding campaign as it receives no legal aid for this work. The Home Secretary made submissions arguing that permission should be refused, but they have been rejected by the High Court.  Permission has now been granted and the High Court has listed the case for a full and final hearing on Tuesday 11 June 2019.

More background to the case and the campaign can be found in this blog by Jennifer Twite, on the CrowdJustice website and in the Times and the Guardian.