9.11.2017 A & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] EWCA Civ 1123 (11 August 2004) 45. The task of the Commission is to assess whether it considers that there are or are not reasonable grounds for a belief or suspicion of the kind referred to in Section 21(1)(a) or (b) (Section 25(2) of the 2001 Act). It is not necessary for present purposes to consider the effect of Section 25(2)(b), which empowers the Commission to discharge the certificate on grounds other than that reasonable grounds for a belief or suspicion are not present, save to recall the additional power to discharge conferred on the Commission. 46. In M v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] EWCA Civ 324, the Secretary of State sought to challenge a finding of the Commission that the issue of a certificate was not justified. Lord Woolf CJ analysed the task of the Commission: "15. SIAC's task is not to review or 'second-guess' the decision of the Secretary of State but to come to its own judgment in respect of the issue identified in s 25 of the 2001 Act. The task of this court on an appeal is limited to questions of law. However, the power of this court to determine questions of law enables the court (among other grounds) to set aside a decision of SIAC if that decision is unsupported by any evidence so that it is perverse. 16. SIAC is required to come to its decision as to whether or not reasonable grounds exist for the Secretary of State's belief or suspicion. Use of the word 'reasonable' means that SIAC has to come to an objective judgment. The objective judgment has however to be reached against all the circumstances in which the judgment is made. There has to be taken into account the danger to the public which can result from a person who should be detained not being detained. There are also to be taken into account the consequences to the person who has been detained. To be detained without being charged or tried or even knowing the evidence against you is a grave intrusion on an individual's rights. Although, therefore, the test is an objective one, it is also one which involves a value judgment as to what is properly to be considered reasonable in those circumstances. " 47. Having considered the facts, Lord Woolf stated, at paragraph 33: "What is critical was the value judgment which SIAC had to make as to whether there was reasonable ground for the belief or suspicion required. As to this question SIAC was the body qualified by experience to make a judgment. SIAC came to a judgment adverse to the Secretary of State. It has not been shown that this decision was one to which SIAC was not entitled to come because of the evidence, or that it was perverse, or that there was any failure to take into account any relevant consideration. It was therefore not defective in law." The Commission's approach was then approved. However, it is submitted that the Commission in the generic judgment failed to apply that test when stating, at paragraph 40: "It is a possibility that the Commission could conclude that there were reasonable grounds for the suspicion or belief without itself holding the requisite suspicion or belief. But its task under Section 25 is to consider the reasonableness of the grounds rather than to cancel a certificate if, notwithstanding the reasonableness of the grounds, it were unable subjectively to entertain the suspicion or hold the belief to which the statute refers. If such a situation were to arise, the Commission will make that clear." The situation did not in the event arise. 48. The Commission did not have the advantage of the decision of this court in M, where its approach was generally approved. I do not consider the approach in paragraph 40 to be inconsistent with M. The Commission was correct to raise the possibility that a certificate need not be cancelled if the Commission was unable itself to entertain the relevant suspicion or hold the relevant belief while at the same time, making the appropriate value judgment, holding that there were reasonable grounds for the suspicion and belief. http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2004/1123.html 12/113