Clause 41 - Asylum-seeker:
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
12:15 pm
Mr Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 222, in page 22, line 16, at end add—
'103C
(1) The Secretary of State may make a grant to a voluntary organisation which provides—
(i) advice or assistance to persons who have a right of appeal under this Part;
(ii) other services for the welfare of those persons.
(2) A grant under this section may be subject to terms or conditions (which may include conditions as to repayment).'.
I am not sure whether we will get such a positive response to this amendment—something tells me that
the Minister may be less forthcoming on it, but I stand to be corrected. We are trying to tease out the other aspect of the tribunal hearing. Having looked at the issue of witnesses to which she responded positively, we now consider the possibility of assistance being given to an individual attending a hearing. Bodies such as the Immigration Advisory Service, the Refugee Legal Centre and others provide advice to individuals going through the process of making an asylum claim; those bodies are not very generously funded and there are limitations to their ability to represent individuals. It would again be helpful to state in the Bill that it is appropriate for the tribunal making the decision to be able to fund organisations offering advice and assistance to individuals going to an appeal at that level—as we have established, it is a significant level in terms of gaining access to support, because means of subsistence is in some ways almost as significant as the asylum claim.
I hope that the Government intend in any case to ensure that that assistance and advice are available but it would be beneficial to relate that explicitly to appeals on support issues. There should be an explicit reference to the ability to gain support from one of the organisations in the field.