Legal Advice Survey finds low levels of representation

The latest edition of BID's Legal Advice Survey report has now been published.

The report finds that Individuals detained in Immigration Removal Centres face enormous hurdles accessing vital legal representation.

Individuals detained under immigration powers are not automatically allocated legal advice and representation. BID found that only 42% currently had representation. This is a marked decline when compared to results from last year where 55% of respondents had representation.

The reasons behind low representation varied but included financial reasons and the complexities of the case. Worryingly some had lost their solicitor as a result of being transferred between detention centres.

There are also practical barriers which impede access to knowledge and communication, including the quality of IT in detention centres, the lack of computers available and poor phone quality signals.

The report confirms that access to timely and quality legal advice is paramount to detainees being able to achieve freedom and reunite with their family and communities. It is fundamentally inhumane to deprive someone of their liberty whilst also restricting their access to justice. 

BID recommends the end of immigration detention. However, while detention continues to exist, we propose the following recommendations to ensure that everyone has meaningful access to justice.

1. Anyone who has been detained under immigration powers should be automatically provided with a lawyer and they should retain the lawyer until they are either removed from the UK, or granted leave to remain.
2. The legal aid merits test should not be applied to people who are: faced with deportation action whilst serving criminal sentences, or who are detained, or liable to immigration detention, until they are released with permission to remain or they are removed from the UK.
3. There should be automatic entitlement to legal aid for representation at a bail hearing every 28 days or sooner where there has been a change of circumstance.
4. Legal aid withdrawn under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) must be restored. In the meantime, lawyers should be allowed to make decisions to issue Exceptional Case Funding without needing to resort to the Legal Aid Agency. 
5. Provision of legal advice in prisons should be expanded and developed as a matter of urgency and should be equal to the provision of advice in IRCs.
6. The above should be used alongside a broader aim to end the use of prisons for immigration detention.
7. The DDA scheme in IRCs should be reviewed. 

Read the report