New guidance on the cost awards procedure in immigration appeals

The President of the First-tier Immigration and Asylum Tribunal has issued guidance notes on legal costs paid by the Home Office to those immigrants who won their cases on appeal. It was stated that costs to be awarded for cases of “unreasonable conduct”, which is where the Home Office pursued the appeal despite very low merits of success. The guidance also obliges Home Office officials to carry out mandatory initial assessment of each immigration case within six weeks of filing an appeal to assess the merits and decide whether the Home Office should continue challenging the matter at the Tribunal.  

This new guidance does not introduce a general rule resulting in automatic award of compensation from the Home Office to all immigrants who won an appeal. On the contrary, it draws the attention of the Home Office that it is essential to identify the appeals that are very likely to be unsuccessful on the early stage and concede them. Taking into consideration that Home Office generally loses about 50% of the appeals that go to a full hearing, the new guidance may be advantageous to a large number of appellants and their families.