Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024

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Chapter 5

Appeals

Appeal from decision of operational committee

33. (1) An applicant (in this Part referred to as the “appellant”) whose application is refused by the operational committee under section 29 (5) may, not later than 30 days after the date on which the notification of the decision is sent to the applicant, appeal the decision of the operational committee and request the committee to arrange for his or her application to be reviewed by an appeals officer in accordance with this section.

(2) An appeal shall—

(a) be made in writing, and

(b) be accompanied by a statement of grounds relied on by the appellant.

(3) The Minister may prescribe by regulations the procedures to be followed in respect of the conduct and consideration of appeals and the appeals officer shall comply with those procedures.

(4) The operational committee shall, as soon as practicable after the making of the appeal under subsection (1), send to an appeals officer the statement of grounds referred to in subsection (2) and a copy of the application form, documents and other supporting information comprising the application the subject of the appeal.

(5) An appeals officer, in his or her review of an application under this section—

(a) shall examine the statement of grounds referred to in subsection (2) and the application form, documents and other supporting information comprising the application the subject of the appeal, and

(b) may take into account any additional information provided to the operational committee under section 30 .

(6) An appeals officer shall not include in his or her review of an application any documents or information additional to those specified in subsection (5).

(7) Subject to this section, an appeals officer shall decide, in accordance with subsection (8), whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that the appellant is a victim of human trafficking.

(8) The appeals officer shall, in relation to a decision under subsection (7)—

(a) take into account whether the application includes, in respect of the appellant, information that relates to or is evidence of the matters specified in—

(i) where the application is made by a child or under section 27 (4) on behalf of a child or a relevant person—

(I) paragraph (a) of section 25 , and

(II) paragraph (c) of section 25 , other than the reference to the means referred to in paragraph (b) of that section,

and

(ii) in any other case, paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of section 25 ,

and

(b) make the decision by reference to such indicators associated with human trafficking as may be specified in the operational guidelines.

(9) An appeals officer shall complete his or her review of an application under this section as soon as practicable after receipt of the documents and information referred to in subsection (4) or the information referred to in subsection (5)(b), whichever is the later.

(10) Subject to this section, an appeals officer shall, where he or she decides that paragraph (a) of subsection (8) is satisfied in relation to an application he or she reviews under this section, grant the application.

(11) Subject to this section, an appeals officer shall, where he or she decides that paragraph (a) of subsection (8) is not satisfied in relation to an application he or she reviews under this section, refuse the application.

(12) An appeals officer shall notify the appellant and the operational committee of his or her decision under this section and the reasons for it.

(13) An appellant may at any time withdraw an appeal by sending a notice of withdrawal to the operational committee and the operational committee shall, as soon as may be, notify the appeals officer concerned of the withdrawal.