Jamaica's minister of culture, Olivia Grange, said in a statement that the London-based privy council, the final court of appeal for several Commonwealth countries, has provisionally set a hearing for the week of 8 March 2027. The UK has until November this year to file its case, the statement added.
The petition, filed last month with King Charles, seeks answers on three questions: whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica was lawful; whether it constituted a crime against humanity; and whether Britain is obliged to provide restitution for slavery and its enduring consequences.
On 23 September, Grange announced that King Charles had referred the matter to the privy council, describing the referral as a “big deal”. She noted the king could have ignored the petition, delayed a response, or refused to refer the questions.
Jamaica invoked a rarely used mechanism under the Judicial Committee Act 1833, which allows the monarch to refer questions of a “legal or constitutional nature” to the privy council when ordinary courts cannot resolve them. Grange said taking the case to the International Court of Justice was not possible because the UK had reservations preventing that court from hearing disputes between the UK and current or former Commonwealth members.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson for UK cabinet minister Andy Burnham reiterated the government's long-held position that "the UK does not and will not pay reparations".