The Court of Appeal's ruling in YH introduces judicial oversight of Home Office fresh asylum decisions, says solicitor Taffy Nyawanza with Bake & Co Solicitors: “The adjudication of fresh claims will also be fairer because the courts no longer have to defer to the Secretary of State's assessment that an asylum claim has a ‘realistic prospect of success'.”

The case concerned a citizen of Iraq from the Kurdish Autonomous Zone who claimed asylum in the UK in 2000 on the grounds he feared persecution by Kurdish authorities. His claim was refused, his appeal was dismissed and he returned to Iraq in 2006. In 2008 he was discovered attempting to enter the UK clandestinely. He applied for asylum. He told a doctor marks on his arm were the results of arrest and torture in Iraq. Arrest and torture had not been part of his previous claim.