Unit 2: Background to regulation

To understand:

• The risks you face from giving unregulated immigration advice
• The risks for clients who receive poor immigration advice
• How immigration advice is regulated
• What the definitions of 'immigration advice' and 'immigration services' are

Unregulated immigration advice is any immigration advice that is given by a person who is not regulated. It is a criminal offence to give unregulated immigration advice. It is punishable by fines and imprisonment.

The Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) is responsible for enforcement. Their purpose is to protect migrants from the harmful effects of unregulated immigration advice (which is often very poor) and to promote good advice.

Poor immigration advice can cause significant harm to the people who receive it. Individuals who receive poor advice can:

• Lose their status
• Commit a criminal offence
• Lose their job
• Become homeless
• Become separated from family members
• Be disbelieved
• Face removal
• Face persecution in the country of return

These are just the immediate consequences - people who have experienced poor advice talk of losing years of their life and the effect on their mental and physical health.

Poor immigration advice is not a criminal offence of itself, unless it is unregulated. However poor advisers may face sanctions from their regulators and may ultimately be prevented from practicing.

The Immigration and Asylum Act, 1999 gave us the current regulatory framework. This act of parliament created the role of 'Immigration Services Commissioner' to deal with the regulation of immigration advice. Thus the 'Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner' or OISC was created. Then on 16 January 2025, the OISC was rebranded the Immigration Advice Authority or IAA.

The '99 Act defined two things:

• Immigration advice, and
• Immigration services

...and made it a criminal offence for you to give either unless you are regulated.

Before the IAA was created there were already a number of regulatory bodies operating in the legal sphere for professionals such as solicitors and barristers. The Act specified that such regulators could also regulate immigration advice and services.

Broadly speaking, the IAA does two things:

• It provides regulation for non-traditional lawyers working in immigration, and
• It investigates and prosecutes instances of unregulated immigration advice and services.

It is also supposed to keep tabs on the other regulators to check that they are providing satisfactory regulation, and to report any concerns to the Home Secretary.

Regulation exists to ensure that the people being regulated provide a consistent level of service and adhere to certain standards. Broadly speaking, all regulators, including the IAA, have a duty to ensure that advisers:

• Are fit and competent
• Act in the best interests of their clients
• Don't go breaking the law
• Don't knowingly mislead courts, tribunals or the Home Office
• Don't abuse any relevant procedures (for example by submitting a doomed application with the sole intention of 'frustrating' arrangements for a client's removal), and
• Don't advise their clients to mislead, abuse procedures, commit offences, etc.

The IAA also has a more general duty to promote good practice among the advisers it regulates.