Written question asked by Louise Ellman (Labour) on Thursday, 11 August 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 September 2011. It was answered by Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative) on Wednesday, 7 September 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Immigration Advisory Service

Question: (3) how many people were in receipt of services from the Immigration Advisory Service at the time of its entry into administration;

Answer: The Ministry of Justice received notification of the Immigration Advisory Service's (IAS) entry into administration on Friday 8 July.The Ministry was informed that the IAS's financial position was such that the trustees were concerned about whether the organisation could continue to operate on Tuesday 28 June.The Legal Services Commission (LSC) does not record the number of people who receive legal aid, but instead records the number of 'acts of assistance'. An act of assistance is each instance in which a provider opens a new matter to advise or assist a client. It is important to note that an individual may receive a number of separate acts of assistance and one act of assistance can help more than one person. As at 11 July 2011, there were 8,140 open acts of assistance identified from the IAS case management system.The LSC is working with the administrators to establish the value of claims for work that had not been submitted for payment when Immigration Asylum Service (IAS) entered administration. These claims will be offset against any sum that is confirmed as being owed to the LSC as a result of the Contract Compliance Audit, which has not yet concluded.

Secondary information