Well, I don't know the details of British law on this, but the German constitution has as its first article "Human dignity is unviolable. To respect it and to p

Well, I don't know the details of British law on this, but the German constitution has as its first article "Human dignity is unviolable. To respect it and to protect it is the duty of all institutions of the state." So, not bending the rules in such cases would actually potentially be illegal. If there is no such rule in place in the UK, then that is where the government did something wrong.