Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether immigration legal aid providers can be reached by public transport from the Wethersfield accommodation site.

There are public transport routes within the vicinity of Wethersfield Accommodation Site from which it would be possible for residents to travel to legal aid providers who undertake immigration and asylum work. The site itself also runs a shuttle service three times a day into Colchester where residents can access legal aid services.

The legal aid contracts in place permit solicitors to travel to Wethersfield to provide advice and assistance where face to face advice is required and the client is unable to travel to the solicitor. In these cases, the solicitor will be paid for their reasonable travel time and costs.

Additionally, the Legal Aid Agency has introduced greater contractual flexibility under the 2024 Standard Civil Contract regarding the provision of remote advice. The Contract permits that up to 75% of immigration and asylum advice can be delivered remotely, compared against 50% in other civil categories. Remote provision can be an effective method of providing legal advice in the majority of cases. As such clients residing at Wethersfield are able to access remote advice from wider pool of legal aid providers reducing the need to travel out of area for advice.