Nationality and Borders Act 2022

67 Civil legal services under section 10 of LASPO: add-on services in relation to national referral mechanism

In section 10 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (civil legal services in exceptional cases), after subsection (3) insert—

“(3A) Civil legal services provided in relation to referral into the national referral mechanism are to be available to an individual in a case where subsection (2) is satisfied in relation to the individual and to services of a kind to which subsection (3B) applies.

(3B) This subsection applies to services in relation to a claim by the individual made to the Secretary of State that to remove the individual from, or to require the person to leave, the United Kingdom would be unlawful under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998.

(3C) The services described in subsection (3A) do not include—

(a) the services listed in Part 2 of Schedule 1;

(b) advocacy;

(c) attendance at an interview conducted by the competent authority under the national referral mechanism for the purposes of a reasonable grounds decision.

(3D) In subsection (3A) “civil legal services in relation to referral into the national referral mechanism” means—

(a) advice on the national referral mechanism, or

(b) other civil legal services in connection with accessing that mechanism,

provided before a reasonable grounds decision has been made in relation to the individual to whom the services are provided.

(3E) In subsections (3C) and (3D)—

• “competent authority” and “national referral mechanism” have the same meaning as in Schedule 1 (see paragraph 8 of Part 4 of that Schedule);

• “reasonable grounds decision” has the same meaning as in Part 5 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (see section 69 of that Act).”