Law Centre NI responds to call for evidence:
Proposals for a new Independent Asylum Appeals Body
Law Centre NI strongly opposes the proposal to replace the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (“FtTIAC”) with a new Independent Appeals Body (IAB). The proposals risk dismantling a system staffed by independent, legally qualified judges and replacing it with a body whose adjudicators may have no legal training, no specialist immigration expertise and no professional regulation.
In an arena of decision-making which can have the most profound consequences, it is difficult to see any benefit to replacing the former system with the latter. We have real concerns that the proposed IAB risks undermining judicial independence and the rule of law and damages the right to a fair hearing.
Law Centre NI views that changes are undoubtedly needed to ensure that people seeking protection have early access to (quality) legal advice, but tinkering with the appeals body is not one of those changes. We would recommend that the UK Government adopts a ‘whole-systems approach’ that addresses the true causes of the backlog and delays by:
- improving the quality of initial decision-making; National Audit Office’s ‘Analysis of the asylum system’ report of 2025 noted that ‘decision quality remains a challenge, with 42% of sampled decisions in a rolling twelve months to May 2025 having significant or fail errors.*
- sustainable investment in legal aid provision, including investment in the voluntary and community sector; while immigration law is an area which becomes increasingly complex, there is a particular lack of provision of immigration legal advice in Northern Ireland. This advice deficit is acute at appeals stage.
- reversing recent changes in asylum and immigration policy that will only exacerbate the current backlog; recent changes and/or proposed changes to Home Office policy are only likely to significantly increase pressures at the appeal stage.
While immigration is a reserved matter, the consequences of a poorly designed appeals body fall heavily on devolved services and infrastructure in Northern Ireland. We urge the Executive Office, which has lead responsibility for migrant integration in Northern Ireland, to robustly engage in discussions on these reforms with the UK Government.
Read our submission here.