48. Memorandum submitted by
the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
IMPROVEMENTS TO THE ENTRY CLEARANCE APPEALS
PROCESS
BACKGROUND
1. HASC visited the Asylum and Immigration
Tribunal (AIT) hearing centre at Taylor House on 20 April.
2. A number of questions were put by members
of the committee related to the entry clearance appeals process
and what improvements to the process are being implemented. This
note summarises the background of the issue and the work in progress
to streamline the current entry clearance process.
SUMMARY OF
ISSUE
3. The key issue and concern raised has
been the time taken to advance an appeal to hearing following
the lodging of the appeal form with either the entry clearance
post or the AIT.
4. A submission was provided to ministers
in December setting out a range of options for streamlining the
entry clearance appeals process including legislative and non-legislative
measures.
5. The intentions were to maintain the flexibility
in the entry clearance lodging arrangements to lodge appeals with
EC posts or with the AIT in the UK, whilst introducing administrative
measures to streamline the process and save an average of seven
weeks from the end to end process.
6. Process improvements are being implemented
by an Entry Clearance Working Group, comprising officials of the
DCA, UK Visas and IND.
WORK IN
PROGRESS
7. Under practice agreed with the Tribunal,
and published in UKvisas' Diplomatic Service Procedures (DSP)
the respondent has one month to compile their bundle in non-settlement
and family visitor cases, and three months in settlement cases.
8. These time limits are adhered to in directions
set by the Tribunal. However, as the Tribunal's procedure rules
provide for 28 calendar days for the service of documents, both
from and to the Tribunal, where a party to the appeal is outside
the country, the time set out in directions has to effectively
be 56 days longer than the actual time allowed to prepare the
bundle although in practice bundles may be received earlier than
this because of actual delivery times. The improvements of a streamlined
appeals process will be realised by:
— Appeals being treated as lodged when
they are received at the entry clearance post, and not after they
have been forwarded to and received by the AIT.
— Timescales allowed for compiling appeal
bundles beginning from the date the entry clearance post sends
the notice of appeal to the AIT, or in any event no later than
10 days following receipt of the appeal at the entry clearance
post. These two measures will result in a saving of 56 calendar
days from the current process timescales.
— Use of electronic systems for appeal
notification with posts and for deciding issues relating to timeliness
or validity of appeals.
— Production of clearer guidance and appeal
forms by the DCA for all parties in entry clearance appeals.
— Consideration of methods of transiting
documents between the Tribunal and entry clearance posts.
IMPLEMENTATION
9. Implementation of the streamlined process
reduce timescales by seven weeks will be staggered, beginning
with the smaller entry clearance posts on 1 June 2006. Larger
entry clearance posts will adopt the streamlined process from
1 October 2006.
10. The Entry Clearance Working Group is
continuing work on the use of electronic systems for document
exchange as a number of IT issues need to be resolved.
11 May 2006
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