I mentioned I was in court last Sat and Sun (and Mon) - this is what for.

I think this is the first successful legal challenge to placement in hotel quarantine involving a severely disabled child whose doctor said they couldn't safely be held at the hotel.

(thread) /1 https://twitter.com/DoughtyStPublic/status/1389935943134683136

This is the fifth case so far I have been involved in relating to hotel quarantine and it is the most troubling so far.

It also identifies a number of issues which I think are features of the system rather than specific to this case

/2

The full facts are in the press release (child's identity anonymised).

Essentially:

The child has severe needs and their treating psychologist provided a report to the Department of Health explaining why their particular severe needs could not be met in hotel quarantine /3

Hotel quarantine - which involved staying in a small room with a guard outside the door and pre-arranged exercise for 15 minutes per day - would likely lead to a severe deterioration in their condition. As things progressed, there was in fact a severe deterioration /4

There is an exemption to hotel quarantine for people with health medical conditions which can't be managed in quarantine, where medical evidence is provided.

Secretary of State for Health refused to apply the exemption despite medical evidence
/5
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/568/schedule/B1A

An application was made over weekend. A duty High Court judge ruled there was a serious issue to be tried and child had reasonable prospects of success in showing the Department of Health’s decision was unlawful. Also ruled that liberty was at stake (ie child was detained) /6

The Secretary of State was given until midday Monday to obtain independent medical evidence. He did not do so. He conceded 15 minutes before further hearing, and 3 days after the medical evidence was provided, that the family could complete the rest self-isolation at home. /7

The case raised a number of concerns which are well articulated by my instructing solicitor Theodora Middleton at @BindmansLLP. /8

I would add:
- Department of Health is running detention centres in hotels staffed by private security around England. I don't think public or they have fully grasped this.
- There inevitably will be severely vulnerable children and adults held in those detention centres /9

- The system of exemptions for medical need is helpful but only if it is applied reasonably and not, as appears here, raising the bar so high that it is unreachable
- I cannot think of a much more obvious case for an exemption as this one (for some reasons I can't say)... /10

... and yet it took the intervention of two High Court judges to convince the Department of Health to apply its own exemption.
- This family had legal support who worked through the weekend but most families won't be able to get that /11

- The 'exemptions team' are obviously overwhelmed and I am not convinced they are making decisions carefully and reasonably (based on this and other cases).

Final thought: This detention system needs far more scrutiny than it is getting /12

More on the hotel quarantine regulations here https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1385292085981585411?s=20