HOME OFFICE News
Release (087/2009) issued by COI News Distribution Service on 14 May 2009
Tougher new rules
to tackle rogue immigration advisers are to be launched by the
Government, the Home Office announced today.
The proposals would give greater powers to the Office of the
Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) to tackle unscrupulous as
well as untrained and unqualified advisers. Poor advice can cause
distress to individuals, delay hearings, and slow down casework
and decision making.
The measures announced today are set out in the 'Oversight
of the Immigration Advisers Sector Consultation', giving
users and stakeholders an opportunity to give their views on how
immigration advisers can be better regulated.
It is the OISC's role to ensure that those giving
immigration advice are qualified. It currently regulates over
1,600 organisations and around 4,000 individuals.
As part of a toughening up of the system, the consultation
proposals include:
* tightening restrictions on individuals who have provided
immigration advice illegally so they cannot own or participate in
an immigration advice business;
* strengthening the rights of the OISC to access and inspect
immigration advisers; and
* issuing businesses with 'yellow card' warnings to say
that their practices are not up to scratch. These would act as
notice to improve standards and set out any changes required.
Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said:
"The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner plays a
crucial role in making sure that people are getting the right
advice on immigration matters and tackling those advisers that
play the system and offer false hope.
"Any abuse of our immigration laws will not be tolerated.
Attempts to frustrate the system cost the taxpayer money and make
it more difficult for people who genuinely need our protection.
"Those responsible will be investigated and prosecuted. The
OISC has already undertaken over 75 successful prosecutions, but
we need to help them to take tough action earlier."
Since its creation in 2001 the OISC has driven up standards
across the immigration advice sector.
It has received over 3,500 complaints about advisers - it has
successfully prosecuted 77 organisations and individuals, issued
67 formal cautions. The courts have issued nearly £60,000 in fines
and compensation, and awarded around £45,000 in court costs.
Suzanne McCarthy, Immigration Services Commissioner, said:
"The OISC has already created a successful regulatory system
and raised the standard of immigration advice available. If these
proposals are implemented it will allow the OISC to give greater
protection to individuals from unscrupulous advisers and protect
the immigration system from abuse. Good immigration is in
everyone's interest. Bad advice ruins lives."
These improvements to the regulation of immigration advisers
follow the reforms, announced last week, to the Asylum and
Immigration Tribunal. The Tribunal reforms will mean a faster,
more efficient system that will save the taxpayer money, speed up
the removal of those who are found not to need our protection
while integrating genuine asylum seekers quicker.
These changes will help to improve public confidence in the
immigration system and are part of the biggest shake-up to the
immigration system for a generation. This also includes
fingerprint visas and ID cards for foreign nationals that lock
people to one identity, and our high-tech electronic border
controls that check people against police, immigration and customs
watch-lists and will cover even more passenger journeys by the end
of this year.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) was
created by the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act to regulate the
immigration advice and services sector. The OISC is a
Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) and started operating in May
2001. http://www.oisc.gov.uk
2. The 12 week consultation will run until 6 August 2009.
3. A copy of this consultation document is available on the UKBA
website http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk
and Home Office website http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk
4. James McDonald, 60 from St Johns Street, Stirling, was ordered
to pay a £5,000 fine, £1,000 compensation and £5,600 prosecution
costs in April 2008 for providing illegal immigration advice to
Pakistani immigrants, in exchange for money. McDonald told his
clients he worked on a 'no-win, no-fee' basis, but in
fact he took money claiming it was for expenses.
5. Winston Leachman, 48 from Dagenham, Essex, was sentenced in
April 2008 to 11 counts of illegally providing immigration advice
in exchange for money. He was given 12 months imprisonment,
suspended for two years, on each count to run concurrently. He was
also ordered to perform 150 hours of community service, pay three
of his victims £1,635 in compensation, and pay £7,965 in
prosecution costs.
6. Lloyd Msipa, 38 from Barking, Essex, was convicted in June
2008 of providing immigration advice and services that he was not
authorised to provide. Msipa pleaded guilty to six counts of
illegally providing immigration advice. He was sentenced to nine
months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to
pay £1,450 in compensation to his victims.
7. Max Kingsley, 59, from Margate, Kent, was jailed for nine
months in September 2008 for illegally providing immigration
advice. Kingsley, who passed himself off as a professor and took
thousands of pounds from his victims, was convicted of 12 counts
of illegal provision of immigration advice.
8. Immigration appeals, fair decisions; faster justice',
published jointly by the Tribunals Service and UK Border Agency
(UKBA) is available from http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk
020 7035 3535