International and Immigration
020 7035 4848
Policy Group (IIPG)
(switchboard)
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
www.gov.uk/home-
office
Sukwant Singh
Sent by email –
request-210480-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx 6 June 2014
Dear Mr Singh,
FOI Request 31652
Thank you for your email of 9th May to the Home Office Freedom of Information team in
which you have asked for information issued by the Home Office following the judgment of
the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case of O and B (Case C-456/12). Your
request is being handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.
I have attempted to answer your questions in the order in which they appear in your email.
1. [Following the judgment in the case of O & B (Case C-456/12)], have there been any
amendments to instructions issued in regards to the centre of life requirement for
British Citizens in an EU member state? If there have, can you please provide me with
a copy of these new instructions.
There has been no amendment to the instructions regarding the ‘centre of life’ requirement
for British citizens who have exercised free movement rights in another Member State.
The guidance previously released to you on 23rd January under request 30270 remains
our current guidance. We therefore do not hold the information you have requested.
2. How many applications for a family permit / residence card have been [received] from
spouses of British Citizens who have been the [recipient] of services in another
member state?
I am unable to disclose the information you have requested. Under section 12 of the Act,
the Home Office is not obliged to comply with an information request where to do so would
exceed the cost limit.
We have estimated that the cost of meeting your request would exceed the cost limit of
£600 specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004. Information on the British citizen’s activity in another Member
State is not centrally recorded within a searchable field on our caseworking databases. To
extract the relevant information would require detailed examination of all individual cases
submitted under the ‘Surinder Singh’ route. It is considered that the work required to
ensure that all of the information held by the Home Office covered by your request was
located, retrieved and extracted would exceed the £600 cost limit.
The £600 limit is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates
to 24 hours of work per request. The cost of locating, retrieving and extracting information
and preparing the response can be included in the costs for these purposes. The costs do
not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads
such as heating or lighting, or items such as photocopying or postage.
If you refine your request so that it is more likely to fall under the cost limit, we will consider
it again. For example, it may be possible to provide information if limit your request to
specific time frame (such as during a particular week or month). Please note that if you
simply break your request down into a series of similar smaller requests, we might still
decline to answer it if the total cost exceeds £600.
3. What instructions have been produced to handle such applications? Please provide
this information which has been produced.
No instructions have been produced to handle such applications.
4. Are any amendments to the regulations planned for this year? (The European
Communities Act 1972 means that this ruling has to be given effect in UK law).
The Home Office is currently considering what, if any, amendments are needed to the
Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 to reflect the judgment in the
case of O & B.
5. Can you please provide any relevant information in relation to this case, which the
Home Office presenting officers have been given which might be used to argue the
validity of a persons right to reside in the UK despite previously residing in another
member state as the recipient of services.
No guidance or information has been issued to presenting officers on this specific topic.
I trust this response meets your needs. If you are dissatisfied with this response you may
request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a
complaint within two months to the address below, quoting reference
FOI 31652. If you
ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with
the response.
Information Access Team
Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
e-mail
: xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request will be
reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you
remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the
Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
P Grant
European Operational Policy Team