Lukasz Krzysztofik, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (EUSS suitability requirements - EU proportionality)

Facts

The applicant is a Polish national who entered the United Kingdom in 2006 and applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme on 17 September 2020. He was then awaiting the outcome of four criminal charges arising from conduct predating the end of the Brexit transition period at 11p.m. on 31 December 2020, and the Secretary of State paused his application on 21 September 2020 under the "pause" or "prosecution stay" policy contained in the guidance "EU Settlement Scheme: suitability requirements". Three charges were resolved with no further action; on 11 January 2021 he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and on 3 February 2022 was sentenced to forty-six weeks' custody. His application was refused on 27 May 2022, with an attendant decision to deport on conducive grounds. The First-tier Tribunal, Judge Graves, allowed his appeal on EUSS and article 8 grounds by a decision dated 20 July 2023, finding permanent residence acquired by a date in 2011 and more than ten years' continuous residence; Upper Tribunal Judge Smith refused the Secretary of State permission to appeal by an order sealed on 18 October 2023. In these judicial review proceedings the applicant challenged the pause policy as unlawful and as a fetter on discretion, and challenged the delay in determining his application. The Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens' Rights Agreements intervened.