Guidance for immigration and asylum practitioners

We are aware that practice and approach can vary in terms of how practitioners carry out different threads of immigration and asylum work.

This has caused uncertainty about how some work activities can be charged for.

This guidance is intended to provide clarity on how the fees tables should be applied when charging for certain work activities and aligns with the publication of the legal aid accounts guidance.

Immigration & asylum accounts should be prepared in accordance with the following guidance.

You are entitled to claim a time-based entry where you need to meet with the client and, where appropriate, an interpreter in order to complete the Home Office form online.

The actual time spent completing the form online with the client present should be accurately recorded in the work item entry.

You should not round the time up to the next quarter hour.

For example, if the meeting lasted 50 minutes from 10:00 to 10:50 then this is what should be recorded against the work item.

You should not charge from 10:00 to 11:00 to match the time booked out for the meeting.

The same principle applies where an interpreter has been instructed. The interpreter should record the actual time the assignment commenced and when it finished.

A framing charge in addition to the time spent with the client is not chargeable in circumstances where the client requires to be present to enable the form to be completed online.

This is because the completion of the document is subsumed within the time charge.

For more information please see guidance section Immigration & Asylum Proceedings.

Where the client’s attendance to complete the online form is not required and the form is capable of being completed without the client being present, you must charge the prescribed framing fee shown in Schedule 3 Part II C:

“For letters other than B above – per page (or part thereof), framing non-formal documents other than precognitions – per sheet of 250 words (or part thereof) and lengthy telephone calls (of over four and up to 10 minutes duration) – £9.10.”

Where the client’s statement/precognition requires to be prepared separately to the Home Office form then you must charge for the statement/precognition in accordance with Schedule 3, Part II, D, which prescribes a block fee for taking and framing a precognition:

“For taking and drawing precognitions – for the first sheet of 250 words or less – £31.93

• for each subsequent sheet of 250 words – £31.93
• for each subsequent sheet of less than 250 words – £15.97.”

You cannot charge for the time spent taking the statement/precognition as only the precognition fee is chargeable. See guidance section Precognitions under Advice & Assistance (non-ABWOR) under Part 2 Schedule 3 of Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1996

Where a separate legal submission requires to be submitted to the Home Office in addition to the online form the framing charge under Schedule 3, Part II, applies.

Any additional information excluding the legal submission that is properly chargeable as a letter, must be charged for separately in accordance with Schedule 3, Part II, B or C depending on whether the content of the letter is formal or non-formal.

See Letters guidance section Letter referring to legislation or rules or letters in the form of legal submissions.

You should upload a copy of the legal submission and the letter to the relevant work item when submitting your claim.

Unlike ABWOR there is no equivalent fee in Schedule 3, Part II, for lodging documents with the Home Office.

Therefore, in the absence of a fee we will pay the minimum time charge for uploading any documents required by the Home Office that need to be submitted using the Home Office portal.

See Lodging guidance section Advice and Assistance.

Alternatively, where documents required by the Home Office in support of an online application need to be sent by letter or email the relevant letter charge will apply.

For time-based activities you should insert:

• the name of the person who did the work (if different from the nominated solicitor)
• their status, that is, qualified or unqualified
• the actual time spent on the work activity, that is, the time from and to, not the time rounded up to the next quarter hour). For example, if the work activity lasted 50 minutes, say from 10:00 to 10:50 then this is the time that should be recorded against the work item.

The ABWOR table of fees prescribes a fee for lodging documents with the Tribunal as per, Schedule 3, Part I, 4 (i):

“Attendance at court offices for performance of formal work including each necessary lodging in or uplifting from court or each necessary enquiry for documents due to be lodged – £3.64”.

The prescribed fee applies regardless of the method used to lodge the documents with the Tribunal.

See Lodging guidance section Lodging (otherwise).

Interim claims for fees or outlays can only be submitted using legal aid online as set out in this guidance: Procedure for submitting interim claims on or after 1 October 2022.

You should not submit interim claims on paper or using your case management system.

You should refer to our published guidance on Language interpreting and translation, which explains what is required when submitting interpreters’ invoices to SLAB.

Please contact:

Eileen Grant

Accounts Assessment Manager

Email: manager.accounts@slab.org.uk