Written question asked by Louise Ellman (Labour) on Tuesday, 19 July 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 5 September 2011. It was answered by Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative) on Monday, 5 September 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Immigration Advisory Service

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice who will assume responsibility for the casework of the Immigration Advisory Service following the organisation entering administration.

Answer: The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has been working closely with IAS's auditors and their wider immigration and asylum provider base to ensure the efficient transfer of files to alternative providers. At the time of writing, the LSC has had indications from providers that there is capacity to take on an additional 28,000 case starts, against the 8,000 live files IAS had at the time they went into administration. The LSC and the administrators are also working to identify urgent matters, involving for example unaccompanied asylum seeking minors or those with hearings in the very near future, with the objective of allocating these cases as a priority.

Secondary information