Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Local authority definition

What does Local authority mean? In legal practice, a local authority is the elected council that provides local government for a defined area, exercising statutory functions including planning, housing, social care, education, highways, environmental health, licensing, and the collection of council tax or rates. The expression appears widely in legislation and case law; its precise scope is set by the relevant statute. England: county councils and district councils (including metropolitan boroughs), unitary authorities, London Boroughs and the Common Council of the City of London; parish and town councils are local authorities at the most local tier. Wales: unitary county and county borough councils. Scotland: the...

England: Local authority duties for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children—age assessment, accommodation and support, National Transfer Scheme, and leaving care to 21–25

Published by a LexisNexis Local Government expert

Practice notes

Practice Note

Although this Practice Note is not confined to unaccompanied Asylum-seeking (UAS) children, they are the group a practitioner is most likely to meet quite often in practice.

Other situations can arise, for example:

a child who has been abandoned but does not lodge an asylum claim;
a dispute about the age of a dependent child of any asylum seeker.

The material in this Practice Note concerns the law currently in force in England. In Wales, this field is governed by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and associated statutory instruments.

This Practice Note does not attempt to detail every obligation owed by the Local authority (LA) to a child because they are looked after by the LA. For those obligations, see Practice Note: Local authority duties towards children looked after by them. However, the key duties are addressed here.

An application for asylum also includes a claim under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) where the applicant contends that, if returned to their country of origin, they would face torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment...

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Bronwen Jones

Goldsmith Chambers

Bronwen specialises in asylum and immigration and children family law.In family law, Bronwen acts in cases concerning the care and safeguarding of children, applications under the Family Law Act 1986 and 1996, and matters concerning the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. In private children law, she has experience of contested applications for temporary removal from the jurisdiction; jurisdictional disputes pursuant to BIIR; proceedings under the Hague Convention; fact-finding hearings; shared care arrangements; multi-party proceedings; and s. 10 applications for leave to apply for s. 8 orders, including in the context of post-adoption contact. Her experience in public law proceedings includes interim and final contested hearings for public law orders; s. 34(3) and (4) applications; secure accommodation; s. 8 and special guardianship orders as outcomes to care proceedings; private adoption; and application for permission to apply for the revocation of a...

Samina Iqbal

Goldsmith Chambers

Samina is a highly experienced immigration, human rights and family law practitioner and has successfully represented and advised on a variety of human rights related immigration, asylum, European law and nationality decisions at all levels, up to and including the Court of Appeal. Within the field of family law, she has experience in Children Act proceedings including residence, contact, parental responsibility, abduction and removal from the jurisdiction. She also regularly represents vulnerable adults, who are victims of domestic violence. Samina can also be instructed directly under the public access scheme. Samina's knowledge of both immigration and family law are invaluable, especially in more recent times following the Supreme Court decision in ZH (Tanzania) [2011] UKSC 4. Samina has been instructed as Counsel for the Appellant on a Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) matter. Samina has been praised for her meticulous yet fearless approach to cases and...

Miranda Butler

Landmark Chambers

Miranda Butler is a barrister specialising in public law, human rights, and immigration. She is ranked in the directories for public law and immigration. In 2013-2014 Miranda was the judicial assistance to Lord Kerr in the Supreme Court. In 2023 she was shortlisted for Immigration Junior of the Year at the Legal 500 Awards and in 2024 as Junior Barrister of the Year at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards. Miranda is a Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge in the Immigration Tribunal and is one of the youngest practitioners ever to be appointed to this position. ...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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