The Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of R (on the application of M and another) v Lambeth London Borough Council and another [2009] UKSC 8 on 26th November 2009. The two appeals concerned asylum seekers who had arrived in the UK, and claimed that they were less than 18 years of age. If true, this imposed duties on local authorities to ensure they received adequate accommodation. The Court of Appeal had dismissed their appeals from a decision of the High Court in 2007.

The Supreme Court considered the two main issues in the appeals. Firstly, the Supreme Court found that the issue of whether a person was a “child” for the purposes of the Children Act 1989 c. 41 was to be determined as a matter of fact. Whilst this was to be assessed by local authorities at first instance, the Courts were the appropriate decision making body where disputes arose.

The Supreme Court discussed the second issue; namely whether the allocation of accommodation in such cases was required to comply with article 6 of schedule 1 to the Human Rights Act 1998 c.42. Declining to give any ruling on the matter, the Supreme Court therefore allowed the appeals.