Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's monitoring procedures for legal compliance by private firms delivering immigration-related services.

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) was established by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to regulate the provision of immigration advice and services by those who are not practising lawyers and are therefore not regulated by another body, such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The OISC’s powers are set out on their website https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-immigration-services-commissioner.

The OISC, which is operationally independent of the Home Office, is responsible for ensuring the organisations it regulates are fit and competent to provide immigration advice and services, and for taking appropriate action, including criminal prosecution, if organisations or individuals are found to be providing immigration advice or services illegally. The OISC do this by carrying out a robust proactive programme of risk based premises audits and operating a complaints scheme. The OISC reports quarterly to the Home Office on the regulatory scheme and successful prosecutions.