What Part 4 did
Part 4 of the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006 said when the rights in Part 2 could be refused, cancelled or ended, and the tests the Home Office had to apply before excluding or removing a person.
The main provisions
- Exclusion and removal. A person could be refused admission, or removed, on grounds of public policy, public security or public health, or because they were subject to a deportation or exclusion order.
- Refusal and revocation of documents. A registration certificate, residence card or other document could be refused, not renewed or revoked where the person no longer had, or never had, the underlying right.
- Cancellation and verification. A right of residence could be cancelled for abuse, and the Home Office could verify that a person still had the right they claimed.
- Abuse of rights and fraud. Fraud, including a marriage of convenience or the use of false documents, was a ground for refusing or ending a right.
The public policy test (regulation 21)
Decisions on public policy, public security or public health grounds had to respect the principle of proportionality and be based exclusively on the person’s personal conduct. That conduct had to represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society. Previous criminal convictions did not by themselves justify a decision. Greater protection applied to people with permanent residence, who could be removed only on serious grounds of public policy or security, and to those who had lived in the UK for the previous ten years or were minors, who could be removed only on imperative grounds of public security.
Where this goes today
Some of this survives in the EU Settlement Scheme and in the Immigration Rules on suitability, where conduct before and after the end of 2020 is treated differently. See deportation and removal and re-entry bans.
