Legal experts have warned that the government’s newly announced boost in hourly legal aid rates for illegal immigration cases is not enough to deal with the UK’s spiralling asylum caseload.
The 15 percent rise in fees, along with added travel expenses, was announced by justice minister Lord Bellamy last week.
In his post-consultation response, Lord Bellamy described the boost as “fair recognition of the expectations the Illegal Migration Act puts on practitioners.”
However, bodies representing the UK’s legal industry say it is not enough, with one describing the move as “the worst of sticking-plaster policy-making.”
Emma Vincent Miller, a lawyer at Public Law Project, said the fee increase will create “perverse incentives” for lawyers to do Illegal Migration Act work to the detriment of other work, such as assisting clients with initial asylum claims in the backlog.
She added: “The Ministry of Justice [MoJ] has failed to listen to legal aid firms who say the rates, including these Illegal Migration Act rates, are unsustainable. It is the reason why immigration lawyers have been leaving legal aid in droves, creating legal aid advice deserts and making it impossible for many to find a legal aid lawyer.”
Review
In June, the MoJ launched a consultation about increasing legal aid rates for lawyers representing those claiming asylum threatened with removal to Rwanda under the new Illegal Migration Act rules.At the time, the hourly rate for asylum legal aid work stood at approximately £52 in London and £47 outside London.
In a lengthy post-consultation response published last week, the MoJ said it had received 38 responses to proposals to increase fees.
It said that most respondents agreed that the government needed to pay higher fees for Illegal Migration Act work, but 95 percent disagreed with the 15 percent figure, and that the rise would solely apply to work arriving from the new act.
Just one of the 38 who took part in the consultation gave a positive response to the 15 percent proposal, while another was listed as giving a “neutral” response.
The report added that “over half” of respondents stated that it is either “insufficient or inappropriate.”
It said many respondents did not provide an alternative rate, but of those that did, fee increases suggested ranged from 50 percent to 150 percent.
However, Lord Bellamy said the government had determined that a 15 percent increase in fees “is a meaningful step forward, representing an increase in remuneration and fair recognition of the expectations the Illegal Migration Act puts on practitioners.”
He added that a review of the fees would be carried out by the government “within two years.”
‘Sticking-plaster Policymaking’
Responding to the government move, Ms. Vincent Miller said: “On the one hand, no one in the legal aid sector is against the idea of a rise in immigration legal aid fees.“An increase is desperately needed at a time where legal aid providers are at breaking point and vulnerable people are routinely unable to access advice.
“And yet, increasing rates for Illegal Migration Act work alone represents the worst of sticking-plaster policymaking.
“This creates perverse incentives for providers to undertake Illegal Migration Act work to the detriment of other work, such as assisting clients with initial asylum claims in the backlog.”
The Public Law Project representative said the MoJ has “failed” to listen to legal aid firms who say the rates, including these Illegal Migration Act rates, are “unsustainable.”
However, she added: “There is a huge backlog of asylum cases and simply not enough lawyers to take them on.
“Many asylum seekers are dispersed to areas where there is no legal aid provider.
“Those facing removal have just eight days to secure legal advice and bring a suspensive claim.
“If they are detained in offshore barges or in an immigration legal aid desert, the chances of them being able to access a lawyer are low.”
Millions Spent
Analysis carried out by The Epoch Times in July found asylum and immigration cases are costing £4.4 million in legal aid a month.According to MoJ figures, over £53 million in legal aid was granted to migrants between April 2022 and March this year for legal advice and representation.
Of that figure, over £36 million in government help was paid to legal representatives for asylum-only cases, with January to March 2023 recording the highest number of cases on record.
Between January and March this year, 11,430 asylum seekers received government legal aid, compared to 9,135 for the same period in the previous financial year, according to the MoJ statistics.
The average cost of legal help granted to asylum seekers per case is just over £836.
Non-asylum immigration cases granted finance for legal help amounted to a total of £4,182,448.27 for 4,154 cases in April 2022 to March this year.
The average cost of each case was recorded at just over £1,000.
Civil representation of immigration cases before the courts, where costs were met by another government department, stands at over £8.3 million for the 2022 to 2023 year.
The MoJ figures show that 315 civil cases—at an average cost of £26,402 each—were closed in the last year up until March 2023.
Some of those cases are believed to include legal action against the Home Office for unlawful detention at immigration centres.
The government’s Legal Aid Agency—which provides civil and criminal legal aid and advice in England and Wales—picked up a bill of £4.3 million for the same period.
They provided legal costs for 675 civil cases marked as closed between April 2022 and March this year. The average spend on each case was £6,492.
