Cutbacks: Harrison Bundy closes asylum department while Howells reduces immigration team

Two northern firms joined those making redundancies in their publicly funded immigration practices this week, with Harrison Bundy in Leeds closing its asylum department and Sheffield firm Howells making cutbacks.


Harrison Bundy has made two solicitors and two non-qualified staff in its former asylum department redundant, though it will continue to do some non-asylum publicly funded immigration work.


Howells has cut its immigration team to one solicitor and three paralegals. Redundancy notices have been served on a solicitor and a paralegal, with another solicitor staying to cover a period of maternity.


Harrison Bundy partner Ruth Bundy said: 'The constraints of the changes brought in on 1 April last year have made it impossible to do asylum work in any viable form.


'We have had to go cap in hand for permission for additional work over the very low legal aid limit. We have had to spend all our time on bureaucracy and scarcely any on the clients' case.'


She added: 'There is a huge problem in the area with the provision of advice. Organisations such as the Refugee Legal Centre (RLC) and the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) will have to continue to be properly supported by the Legal Services Commission (LSC), but there have been funding threats even to them.'


An LSC spokesman said there were already alternative providers in Leeds and Sheffield, and it was increasing RLC and IAS contracted casework limits in Yorkshire and Humberside. He said that once the five-hour threshold for initial asylum advice had been reached, solicitors could obtain an extension from the commission whenever reasonable.