SA, R (on the application of) v Pembrokeshire County Council

Facts

The claimant, SA, is an asylum seeker who claims to have been a child at the time of his application, and who brought a claim for judicial review against Pembrokeshire County Council. His personal circumstances are intimately involved in the proceedings. The claim form was filed on the very last day of the three-month longstop period, and the court observed that it was at least questionable whether the claim had been brought promptly. The defendant failed to file its acknowledgment of service in time, and by notice dated 8 July 2026 applied for a retrospective extension of time for filing it; the Summary Grounds of Defence were accordingly filed late. The claimant, for his part, applied for anonymity, seeking protection of his identity in the proceedings. Both applications came before the Administrative Court, sitting at Cardiff, for determination on the papers, without a hearing and without representations from the claimant on the extension of time. The court noted that, in a case of this nature, the grant of permission would involve the transfer of the proceedings to the Upper Tribunal and a full fact-finding hearing there, the permission stage itself remaining to be determined.