Regulating Immigration Advisers and the work of the IAA

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Hi and welcome to this latest immigration law conversation. Today I've got the privilege of being joined by Karen Eyre-White. Karen is the director of service delivery at the Immigration Advice Authority and I thought it'd be a wonderful opportunity today to talk all about the work of the IAA in regulating immigration advisors and some news from the IAA, what's happening at the moment. So Karen, thank you so much for joining me today. In terms before we get to you, I thought we'd set the scene. Some people may not know about the IAA and the work of the Immigration Advice Authority. Some people may still be referring to the OISC. So just put it all in context. Tell us a bit about the work of the Immigration Advice Authority, what it does.

Thanks, Adam, and thanks for having me on to chat to you and your interest in the IAA. Yes, so the IAA, the Immigration Advice Authority, previously known as the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner or OISC as I believe some referred to us. So we went through a rebrand last year. For those who don't know about us, we're a regulator and we protect people seeking immigration advice and we do that in three ways. First of all by regulating immigration advisers who are registered with us. Secondly by taking sort of proactive enforcement action against those who are giving advice while unregulated. And thirdly promoting best practice across the sector which includes looking to support the ongoing professionalization of the sector and the growth of the sector as well. So at the moment we regulate around 4,000 individual advisers, 2,000 organizations, and what we're doing is ensuring that only suitably qualified individuals and organizations can provide immigration advice. And we're led by the immigration services commissioner who has overall responsibility for that.

Now that's really helpful. Karen, in terms of your individual role, tell us a bit about you and what you do within the IAA.

Yeah. So, my background is in regulation. I'm the director of service delivery. So, I'm responsible for our operational regional teams. And they do two things. So, first of all, they do that enforcement action that I referred to. So, they're taking action against people who are giving advice while unregulated and also who may be abusing the immigration system. I'm sure viewers will have seen some of the BBC coverage over the last couple of weeks. And we prosecute in those types of cases where we've got the evidence and there's a public interest to do that. And then the second thing that those operational regional teams are doing is regulation. So that's investigating complaints against regulated advisers, undertaking audits, ensuring those who are regulated by us are providing high quality advice and taking robust action if they're not. I also oversee our authorizations team. So that's the team who handle new registrations into the scheme and ensure that only fit and competent individuals are able to come in. And I also have our policy team. So this is the team that's making decisions about our regulatory approach. So for example, how we're going to use some of the new powers that we've got which I'm sure we'll come on to.

Adam, definitely a busy role then indeed. You've talked about ensuring that the right people and qualified people are registered as advisers. So, if a member of the public was watching this video and trying to find a reputable immigration advisor, what should they look for in terms of IAA registration? And there's these things of levels. So, what are the different levels and what does that mean?

Yeah. So, if you're looking for a reputable advisor, then they need to be regulated either by us or by another regulator. So, for example, the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We have a register on our website of all organization and individuals who are registered with us. So that's at www.immigrationadviceauthority.gov.uk. We also have a tool on our website the advisor finder where you can search for a registered advisor near you. And really the key message is before you trust an advisor you need to check our register. That's really important point. Some advisers will also have a digital badge on their website which links to their IAA registration. So that's another good thing to look for. In terms of different levels, so advisers and organizations are registered at different levels to line up with the types of advice that they're competent to give. This is obviously quite a complex landscape. And they're registered in these levels in either immigration or asylum work or they might have registration in both. And I won't go into lots of detail on the levels, but in simple terms, a level one advisor can give basic one-off applications within the immigration rules and on asylum, some limited support to asylum seekers. At level two, you can deal with much more complex immigration cases and all aspects of an asylum application. And then level three is the level where advisers can represent clients at appeal and also do some judicial review work. So those are the different levels, but our register and our advisor finder show the level advice that individuals and organizations are authorized to give.

Yeah, I'll put those links that Karen has referred to in the description this video so people can access the advisor finder. And I think from my perspective as counsel, seeing the ramifications of when people haven't got reputable advisers and things have been messed up and trying to then remediate it after the damage has happened, it's so important to get good regulated advice. You mentioned earlier best practice. How can the IAA because I know from speaking at the conference earlier this year that the IAA are keen to help advisers with best practice, help resource advisers. What's available to help be a best practice for advisers?

Yeah. Well, the online conference is a great place to start. So we have an advisor conference twice a year. You spoke at our last conference, Adam. Thank you for that. And those are really opportunities to hear from the Home Office, from experts in the field and a range of updates that are relevant to advisers. So I'd really encourage people to attend those. We have lots of resources on our website. So I've already mentioned that and you could include the link perhaps, Adam. So that includes our code of standards. So that sets out the standards that we expect and then we've got a range of guidance documents on different aspects of immigration advice. And we're actually going to be launching a specific advisor resource page shortly. We've also got some training videos coming for advisers and just some short snippets on different topics of immigration advice. So lots of resources to be found on our website and then thinking to the future we're really keen to support best practice in the sector as I said sort of support the ongoing professionalization of the sector because there are so many organizations and individuals working tirelessly and expertly to support advice seekers and we want to continue supporting them to be able to do so. So we're thinking through some ideas around perhaps an academic qualification for the sector as well as tools that can help advisers to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. So using AI, other resources; so we're doing some future thinking around that but there's lots that's available on our website now as well.

Yeah, that's some really exciting developments in terms of qualifications and how we use AI obviously safely and ethically definitely. But I'd encourage advisers to access those resources because we practice in probably the fastest moving area of law that's constantly subject to change. And just in terms of changes, you mentioned earlier about the new powers as well. The IAA got new powers when the Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Act came into force. Tell us a bit about those powers and perhaps the plans in terms of when they'll come into effect.

Yeah, so these powers which we secured through that act last year, they'll really strengthen the enforcement action that we can take both against regulated and unregulated advisers. So as a high level summary, they include fining powers so up to 15,000 pounds against regulated and unregulated advisers. The ability to require the repayment of fees and the giving of compensation particularly if advice seekers have there's been an impact on them from activity by a regulated or an unregulated adviser. And then some important powers about making it easier for us to cancel and suspend registration in serious cases. At the moment we're limited in our ability to do that. The new powers also allow us to charge for a wider range of services. So we've been quite constrained on that in the past. For example, we run competence assessments. At the present we can't charge for them. And actually we think that being able to charge for them will probably enable us to provide it more frequently for example. So I think that there's benefits on both sides to having a bit more flexibility there. But overall the powers they support us in becoming a more robust regulator and being able to take action more quickly to ensure that standards in the sector remain high. In terms of you asked about when they would come in. So the powers will come into effect once secondary commencement regulations and secondary legislation have been laid. So we're working with the Home Office on them and we're looking at a phased plan over the next six to 12 months for that.

No, that's really helpful. And what I'll do, there's a fact sheet on the IAA website about the new powers that were brought in as a result of the act. So again, I'll link that for anybody on our website going into those in more detail. That's really helpful. Karen, we've talked about what is the IAA, what the IAA can do in terms of people looking for advice and to help advisers and the new regulatory powers. As we finish up, is there anything you want to leave us with? And what's the best way for different people organizations to reach out to the IAA if they need to access these resources or get in touch?

Yeah. So, I think I'd say that, we're really keen to get the message out about how to find a registered advisor and about the risks and the dangers of using unregulated advisors. We're actually about to launch our first national campaign that's going to be focused around ensuring that people know to check our register and to use Advisor Finder. So I'd ask anyone watching to really support that effort and promote those tools where they can. And I'd also just remind everyone that we have an online reporting tool to report illegal advice or poor advice. So we're really keen to hear from all stakeholders where they're seeing that in the sector. The portal also has a way to get in contact with us for general queries if anyone needs to do that.

I think that's so important because increasing standards and the reputation of the profession is so important to make sure ultimately the product we're delivering, namely advice to often the most vulnerable in society is at the best quality possible. Well, Karen,

Absolutely. In all of our interest to make sure that we can do that and that we're getting to the bottom where people are abusing the system or exploiting individuals.

100%. Thank you so much Karen for your time today. Really helpful and a really helpful insight to the work of the IAA.

You're welcome. Thank you for having me.