Alison Harvey

Court of Protection
Alison works across the Court of Protection jurisdiction, including welfare disputes, deprivations of liberty including s 21A challenges, property and affairs, deputyship and attorneyship, and medical treatment cases.  She advises on and appears in and complex matters of mental capacity before the High Court including forced marriage cases and cases where the inherent jurisdiction has been invoked. Alison has experience of committal proceedings arising from Court of Protection proceedings. Her Court of Protection caseload includes cases:

• Transferred to the Court of Protection from the family court involving 16-18 year olds, including those under special guardianship, held to lack capacity
• Involving deprivation of liberty in hospital settings and the relationship between mental capacity and mental health law
• In which the protected person has capacity to make decisions about residence but not their care
• Challenging deprivation of liberty in public health settings including the early Covid-related cases BP v Surrey County Council and RP [2020] EWCOP 17 and BP v Surrey County Council and RP (No2) [2020] EWCOP 22
• Concerning the interplay between drug and alcohol abuse, and disorders of the mind or brain
• Involving capacity to decide to engage in sexual relations including for protected persons on the sex offenders’ register
• In which family members are alleged to pose a threat to the protected person, including those involving financial abuse
• Involving disputes between deputies and attorneys and/or applications for the removal of deputies or attorneys on the grounds that they are not acting in the best interests of the protected person
• Involving applications for trusteeships in the Court of Protection where the protected person is trustee of property
• Where coercive control of the protected person is alleged

Alison acts in public law cases arising out of, or alongside, Court of Protection proceedings.

Nationality and Immigration
Alison is a specialist in complex matters of nationality, citizenship, and statelessness.  She advises on all types of British nationality.  Her cases include historical status-tracing, deprivation of citizenship, and applications for registration as a British citizen by adults and children. She is a contributor to the second edition of Fransman’s British Nationality Law.

She acts in family immigration, human rights, and asylum and  in cases involving migrant domestic workers and trafficked persons. A substantial part of her immigration practice is advising on complex points of law. She takes cases before the tribunals, particularly the Upper Tribunal, and in the Court of Appeal, and acts in immigration and nationality-related judicial review matters in the Administrative Court. In addition to statelessness cases, her specialisms in the field of asylum are cases of unaccompanied children, and cases with involving slavery and trafficking.  She has worked with UNHCR in West Africa and for NGOs in Darfur.

She is a member of Lexis Professional Support Law Consulting Editorial Board for immigration.

Family law
Alison’s family law caseload includes:

• Forced marriage protection order proceedings including where questions of capacity have been raised
• Children in whose cases the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court is invoked.
• Child welfare proceedings including those raising issues of secure accommodation discharge from hospital and special guardianship
• Proceedings raising questions of nationality and immigration law.
• Direct access and work as an expert witness

Alison accepts direct access advisory work in appropriate cases, in particular advisory matters,.  She also acts as an expert witness on matters of immigration and nationality law in family cases, inquests, and related matters,  She acts as an expert witness on matters of professional negligence related to immigration cases.

Writing and training and advisory work

“As a trainer and writer, she is a leader in her field …Her forensic attention to detail has also proved invaluable in the ongoing wrangles over the detail of legal aid policy and regulations.” Steve Hynes, Legal Action Group

Alison is the author of, and contributor to, many books and articles, including the second edition of Fransmna’s British Nationality Law, and Macdonald’s Immigration law and Practice.  She co-wrote A Guide to the Immigration Act 2016, with Zoe Harper.  She trains, lectures,  widely.

Alison has worked in non-governmental organisations including the Children’s Society, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (now Freedom From Torture), and the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, of which she was the general secretary and legal director, and continues to work to support a range of non-governmental organisations in particular in work with parliament. She has campaigned for legal aid provision and against legal aid cuts since the 1990s. Alison has held a number of trusteeships: she is a former chair of trustees of ECPAT UK and is a trustee, and former chair of trustees, of Kalayaan.

Appointments

• Lexis PSL Consulting Editorial Board Immigration
• Bar Council representative to Home Office Simplification of the Rules Review Committee
• Advisor to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for its enquiry into immigration detention
• Member, Expert Advisory Panel of the Strategic Legal Fund for Vulnerable Young Migrants
• UK Representative European Network of Asylum Law
• Member, editorial board Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law