Bar for permanence applications not quite so high

In a further sign that permanence order applications continue to trouble the sheriff courts, in Fife Council v KPM [2018] SCA (Civ) 25; 2018 GWD 31-394 a sheriff was deemed to have erred in his approach to applying the threshold test.

The fallout from the Supreme Court pronouncement in West Lothian v B [2017] UKSC 15; 2017 SC (UKSC) 67 was evident again in the interpretation by the sheriff that the threshold test presented a “very high bar”. This was wrong in law. The sheriff had unreasonable expectations of the sort of evidence the local authority was required to provide.

Click here to view the judgment.