The initiative could lead to more errors and delays, a legal director said
Lawyer groups have slammed the UK government’s proposal to establish the Independent Immigration Appeals Authority – a body of non-judges to preside over asylum appeal hearings.
The body would be composed of what home secretary Shabana Mahmood described as “professionally trained and independently appointed adjudicators - much like magistrates - who will have a broad range of skills and backgrounds,” as reported by the Law Society Gazette. The body is set to begin hearing appeals next year.
Migrants must file claims all at once. Moreover, they cannot appeal a denied claim and bring additional claims about new matters.
The Law Society of England and Wales has called for the body’s scrapping. The Immigration Law Practitioners Association said the initiative represented an “attack on justice and the rule of law,” per a statement published by the Gazette.
According to Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants legal director Enny Choudhury, the body would not cut any backlog because the adjudicators would not be well-equipped to tackle complex appeals. This would result in “more delays, avoidable mistakes, onward appeals, further claims - at a cost to the public, and to those whose lives are caught in limbo until their claims are fully and fairly determined,” Choudhury said in a statement published by the Gazette.
Mahmood said she could request the expedition of a case if it was considered to be in the public interest; Choudhury said this statement fundamentally misunderstood the evidential basis of appeals and the legal aid crisis.
“In our experience, gathering expert evidence is often determinative of appeals - medico-legal reports can take six months or more due to capacity among experts. Similarly country expert reports, social work reports, language assessments all take time,” Choudhury said in a statement published by the Gazette.
She pointed out that engaging a legal aid lawyer and obtaining funds for expert evidence could take months. Moreover, victims of trafficking or torture without legal representation would be significantly hampered by the inability to identify grounds for claims.
The Immigration and Asylum Bill is set for presentation before parliament.
As of December 2025, the UK Crown court’s backlog has surpassed 80,000 cases.
