Asylum and Immigration Appeals - new inquiry

The Committee on the Lord Chancellor's Department has resolved to undertake an inquiry into the immigration and asylum appeals process. Submissions are invited on any aspect of the appeals process, but the Committee will have particular regard during this inquiry to:

·       the extent to which recent reforms have produced any significant efficiency savings and/or improved the quality of the appeals process

·       the costs to public funds of supporting new appeals structures, such as the Asylum Support Adjudicators, and of supporting the extension of legal aid

·       the extent to which the Immigration Appellate Authorities could be made more efficient, without sacrificing fairness

·       whether the relevant procedure rules properly balance fairness and justice with efficiency

·       whether there is sufficient availability and provision both of legal advice and representation and of interpretation facilities for appellants in asylum and immigration cases

·       the extent to which "non-suspensive" appeals provide an adequate right of appeal.

Submissions should be sent to the Clerk of the Committee at the address above by Wednesday 30th April.. If possible, please supply an electronic version in MS Word or Rich Text format, either by e-mail to lcdcom@parliament.uk or on a disk. If submitted by e-mail or e-mail attachment, your covering e-mail should state clearly who the submission is from, together with relevant contact details, and a letter should be sent validating the e-mail. Attention is drawn to the guidance on the submission of evidence which can be found at: www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/witguide.htm.

Please note that the Committee's terms of reference specifically preclude it from consideration of individual cases.

Note: The Committee was established on 28th January this year to scrutinise the expenditure, policy and administration of the Lord Chancellor's Department and associated public bodies. Further information about the Committee may be found on the Parliamentary website, as above. The members of the Committee are as follows:

Rt Hon Alan Beith MP (Chairman) (Lib Dem, Berwick-upon-Tweed)   Mr Hilton Dawson MP (Lab, Lancaster and Wyre)  

Peter Bottomley MP (Con, Worthing West) Mr Mark Field MP (Con, Cities of London and Westminster)       

Mr James Clappison MP (Con, Hertsmere)  Mr Clive Soley MP (Lab, Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush)     

Ross Cranston QC MP (Lab, Dudley North) Keith Vaz MP (Lab, Leicester East)     

Mrs Ann Cryer MP (Lab, Keighley)        Dr Alan Whitehead MP (Lab, Southampton Test)   

Mr Jim Cunningham MP (Lab, Coventry South)     

Clerk of the Committee: Huw Yardley 020 7219 8195

Committee Assistant: Susan Morrison 020 7219 8198

Secretary: Julie Storey 020 7219 8196

Committee website: www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/lcdcom.cfm

Source for this page: www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/witguide.htm.

The contents of this page are the sole responsibility of the author/s.

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