Facts: Four healthy, able-bodied asylum-seekers faced destitution because they claimed asylum late, by virtue of section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

Judgment: the House of Lords (Lords Bingham, Hope, Scott, Lady Hale and Lord Brown) held that a decision to exclude certain asylum-seekers from asylum support was an intentionally inflicted act for which the Secretary of State was responsible and it amounted to ‘treatment’ for the purposes of Article 3 ECHR. That treatment would be ‘inhuman or degrading’ when a person was obliged to sleep in the street or go seriously hungry or became unable to satisfy the most basic requirements of hygiene. The duty to avoid inhuman or degrading treatment required the Secretary of State to provide support to avert imminent destitution.