Access to Legal Services for Asylum-seekers in Britain

As a result, asylum-seekers require legal services to pursue their claims. However, a number of new policies are being implemented simultaneously.

Changes to the asylum support policy, and to the system of providing publicly-funded legal services, are being implemented at the same time as the Home Office is increasing the speed with which it makes decisions, and is making a concerted effort to reduce the backlog of cases. The paper seeks to assess the impact of these changes so far, and concludes that each of them represents a significant challenge to legal practitioners, and that collectively they risk leading to an intolerable pressure on service providers, as a result of which asylum-seekers will find it extremely difficult to gain access to the legal advice that they need.