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Section 58: Age assessments: power to make provision about refusal to consent to scientific methods

Illegal Migration Act 2023 · 2023 c. 37View on legislation.gov.uk

This provision is repealed
It is retained for historical reference and may not reflect the law currently in force.

REPEALED on 2025-12-02 by Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025.

The text below is the provision as originally enacted. It is historical and may not include amendments made before this status change. View the enacted source.

The Secretary of State may make regulations about the effect of a decision by a relevant person (“P”) not to consent to the use of a specified scientific method for the purposes of an age assessment of P where there are no reasonable grounds for P’s decision.

The regulations may provide that, in the circumstances set out in the regulations—

section 52(7) of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (refusal to consent to scientific methods to be taken to damage credibility) does not apply, and
P is to be treated as if the decision-maker had decided that P was over the age of 18.

In this section—

  • “age assessment” means an assessment under section 50 or 51 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022;

  • “decision-maker” and “specified scientific method” have the same meanings as in Part 4 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (see section 49 of that Act);

  • “relevant person” means a person who meets the four conditions in section 2 (duty to make arrangements for removal).

In Part 4 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (age assessments)—

in section 52 (use of scientific methods in age assessments), in subsection (7), at the end insert ;“(See also section 58 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (power to make provision about refusal to consent to scientific methods).)”
in section 53 (regulations about age assessments), in subsection (1)(a)(iv), after “method,” insert .“the circumstances in which a person may be considered to have reasonable grounds for a decision not to consent and”

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.