Immigration and Asylum Bill and the Rewriting of Family Life Under Article 8
25th September 2026
The Immigration and Asylum Bill is currently making its way through Parliament, presented by the Government as delivering its May 2025 White Paper commitment to “restore control” of the immigration system. Behind that framing, however, the Bill does something more significant than administrative reform. It rewrites, in statute, what counts as family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
This briefing sets out what the Bill actually says, and why it matters. We look in detail at the new statutory definition of family life and we set this against the European Court of Human Rights’ own case law to show where the Bill’s approach departs from established legal protections.
Read our briefing to find out more.