Press Releases pre-May 2010

Two successful legal advice pilots for detained asylum seekers and immigrants are to become a permanent part of the legal aid service, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) announced today by inviting organisations to tender to deliver the work.

The invitations to tender were published on Monday 19 November for the delivery of specialist, high quality and easily accessible services for advice and representation at Police stations and Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs.)

Under the pilot schemes:

• Four IRC on-site surgery pilots assisted 725 detainees in a six-month period.
• The police station pilot provided advice to 4,877 detainees over a six-month period.

In addition Home Office projections, that 15 percent of asylum seekers will have their claims decided through the detained Fast Track process in the future, will enable us to plan to assist 3380 clients next year, the same as the current year.
 
Two successful pilots, the Police Station Telephone Immigration Advice Pilot and the On-site Immigration Detention Advice Pilot, have informed the development of the model we are now running tender rounds for.

Both pilots filled gaps in advice provision, ensuring that detained, vulnerable clients received professional immigration and asylum advice. For example, previously specialist immigration and asylum advice was not easy to access at the police station, particularly outside normal office hours and clients were often to referred to the duty criminal representative.

The LSC’s head of the Community Legal Service, Crispin Passmore said:

“People who are detained and facing deportation need accessible, independent and quality assured advice and representation. We need to meet the, often urgent, needs of this very vulnerable group in a coordinated way but if we are to maintain a sustainable service we must also be meticulous about demonstrating value for money."

Services to these detained groups will now be more coordinated through the introduction of exclusive contracts. The exclusive contracts will allow providers to develop relationships with removal centre staff that ensure cases are handled effectively and with minimal duplication of work. 

The police station telephone advice work will be paid by fixed fees while advice provision in IRC’s will predominately be paid through hourly rates, with some services paid through set payments. 

We recognise, as a result of our July 2006 consultation that, certain vulnerable groups such as detainees and children need to be treated and funded differently from other client groups. These new contracts will enable us to continue to improve our understanding of this market over a longer term.

We are inviting both current providers and new organisations to tender for this work. Further information as to the detail of the schemes and the criterion against which tender will be assessed can be found on our website.

Contracts will run from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2010. Current pilot contracts and Fast Track contracts for Harmondsworth and Yarl’s Wood IRCs will end on 31 March 2008.

Media information

Michaela Keating (Tel: 020 7759 0444)

Notes to editors

Police Station Immigration Telephone Advice Pilot

The pilot was set up on 12 June 2006 to address an advice gap - clients detained for non-criminal immigration matters could only access a limited amount of criminal advice from a criminal solicitor in relation to the offence they were charged with. They often faced difficulty in accessing civil immigration advice, particularly outside office hours and weekends.

The pilot has successfully provided telephone advice to clients 24/7. Going forward, the service will run from 7am to midnight. Specifically, it allows clients to:

• clarify their rights and legal position on their immigration status
• clarify any actions they may need to take
• understand what is likely to happen to them and, in some cases
• resolve the matter without the need for further representation.

On-site Immigration Detention Advice Pilot

This pilot has been phased in from December 2005 and was developed in response to general concerns about the accessibility of legal advice for detention centre detainees. It operates as an appointment based on-site surgery, two days per week, per Immigration Removal Centre (IRC).

Since its phased introduction from December 2005, it has successfully addressed this recognised gap. 

Fast Track Advice (Harmondsworth and Yarl’s Wood only)

There have been exclusive contracting arrangements operating in two IRC’s for some time.  Under these contracts advisers provide advice and representation to detainees whose asylum applications are being considered by the Home Office under their fast track process.