Clients needing legally-aided immigration advice in the Hull area could be left out in the cold as the last remaining law firm providing asylum services in the area has pulled out.

Cleethorpes-based Wilkin Chapman said it was quitting owing to 'poor rates of Legal Services Commission (LSC) remuneration and the increasing demands of seemingly uncontrolled bureaucracy'.


Partner Paul Sheridan said: 'Running these practices is now hopelessly uneconomic. There are now hundreds of people in the area in desperate need for these services and, effectively, no one to supply them at public expense.'


The LSC acknowledged there was a problem but said: '[We] have already put in alternative provision in Hull through the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS), which has been working in conjunction with Hull Citizens Advice Bureau.'


The spokesman added: 'As a result of Wilkin Chapman's recent decision, the commission is looking at extending the service offered by the IAS to north-east Lincolnshire as a matter of priority.'