Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s department has published a full set of policy factsheets for the Immigration and Asylum Bill, setting out plans for a single protection status, a new appeals authority and changes to Article 8 and modern-slavery rules.
The Bill was introduced on 30 June, so the measures are not new legislation. The fresh development is the publication of detailed explanations covering seven areas of the package.
A new appeals authority
The Bill would create an Independent Immigration Appeals Authority with professionally trained adjudicators and a single appeal route. Home Office figures say about 156,000 immigration appeals were outstanding in June, including around 90,000 asylum cases.
Single protection status
It would replace separate refugee and humanitarian-protection decisions with a single protection status. The Government says people would still not be removed to countries where they faced serious harm.
Other measures would change how Article 8 family and private-life claims are considered, reform modern-slavery decision-making and allow asylum support costs to be recovered from people able to contribute.
The factsheets say the Government remains committed to the European Convention on Human Rights. The Bill remains at committee stage in the Commons, and the newly published material does not by itself change the law.
