Asylum: Legal Opinion

(asked on 13th July 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the legal advice available to people making an asylum claim.


Answered by
Mike Freer Portrait
Mike Freer
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 21st July 2023

Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, all immigration advisers must be registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) or be regulated by a Designated Qualifying Regulator (DQR). The OISC and the DQRs are responsible for ensuring immigration advisers are fit, competent, and act in their clients’ best interests.

The DQRs include legal services representative bodies who designate regulatory responsibilities to legal services regulators. Legal services regulation is independent of Government and the relevant regulators are responsible for ensuring quality and standards for providers of legal advice.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is a DQR and responsible for the regulation of solicitors and ensuring that all solicitors meet required standards. In November 2022, the SRA published a thematic review of immigration and asylum services as well as updated immigration guidance to help solicitors understand their obligations when providing immigration advice. The guidance is available here: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/resources/immigration-services/guidance-and-support/.

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