*R (on the application of Hiri) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Citizenship – United Kingdom citizenship. The claimant was a national of Botswana who had served in the British Army. He applied for naturalisation as a British citizen. The defendant Secretary of State refused his application and upheld that decision on review (the decisions) on the grounds that she was not satisfied that the claimant met the 'good character' requirement for naturalisation within para 1(1) of sch 1 to the British Nationality Act 1981 because he had a conviction for exceeding a temporary 50 mph speed limit. Allowing his claim for judicial review, the Administrative Court held that the Secretary of State had not properly weighed in the balance the strong countervailing evidence of the claimant's good character against the fact of his conviction, in order to make an overall assessment of his character, as was required by law.