'Solicitor sentenced to six months for giving legal advice.' We are likely to see this headline in the next few months if cl 5 of the Asylum and Immigration Bill is passed by Parliament.

This Bill is currently before a standing committee in the House of Commons which has just refused to incorporate amendments to cl 5 (see [1996] Gazette, 31 January, 6).

Given the speed at which the Bill is progressing, it is likely to become law by the summer.

It targets those who give a proper and legitimate service to their clients as potential criminals.Cl 5 of the Bill as drafted amends s.25 of the Immigration Act 1971.

S.25(1) will now read: 'Any person knowingly concerned in making or carrying out arrangements for securing or facili tating: (a) the entry into the UK of anyone whom he knows or has reasonable cause for believing to be an illegal entrant; (b) the entry into the UK of anyone whom he knows or has reasonable cause for believing to be an asylum claimant; (c) the obtaining of leave to remain in the UK by anyone whom he knows or has reasonable cause for believing not to be entitled to such leave; shall be guilty of an offence.'Subs 2 of the new cl 5 provides for one exception to those caught by this new clause.

This exception is that (b) will not apply where the offence is committed not for gain, or in the course of the person's employment by a bona fide organisation whose purpose is to assist refugees.

Organisations or individuals whose purpose is not specifically to assist refugees will not be covered by that exception.

Therefore solicitors will not be exempt from any of the strictures of the new clause.Section (c) is a new offence.

It is written so broadly that it covers advice on any immigration matter.

This is because under immigration legislation and rules currently in force no one is entitled to leave to remain.

Leave is only given provided various criteria are complied with, and after the exercise of consideration by Home Office officials.

Furthermore, even if giving advice to clients who fitted into immigration rules were excluded from this clause, all those clients who are currently subject to deportation proceedings for one reason or another would be left, as would all those clients who are currently on temporary admission whilst the Home Office considers applications for the exercise of discretion, and all those clients who have applications or wish to make applications for their case to be considered outside the rules.

For a solicitor to advise any of the latter would be an offence.The type of cases caught by the new rule would include applications for mothers to remain in the UK with their British children; families where deportation would result in separating parents from children; abused children who have been taken into care; deportation of severely ill children or adults; and illegal entrants who want to make a clean breast of it to the Home Office.The Home Office issued a briefing document to MPs on the standing committee which is considering the Bill to explain what it sees as the meaning of cl 5.

In response to concerns raised by the Law Society about the 'criminalisation' of solicitors, the Home Office said that the clause is directed at racketeers who assist in the obtaining of leave to remain by those whom they know -- or have reasonable cause to believe -- are not entitled to leave.

The Home Office states that it is not directed at solicitors or other bona fide advisers and that it remains open to a solicitor to make an application for leave to remain on behalf of a client whether or not it is within the immigration rules.

However, the Home Office says that a solicitor would not be entitled to seek leave to remain on behalf of a client when, for example, he knew that forged or untrue documents were being used in support of the application.It appears that the Home Office has been misled by its own propaganda.

Cl 5 clearly and unequivocally makes it a criminal offence to give assistance where a person is not entitled to status.

All immigration lawyers know that clients are not entitled to status.

They would thus fall foul of the clause.

Nirj Joseph Deva MP, a Conservative member of the standing committee, has proposed an amendment which deserves consideration but needs substantial alteration.

The amendment proposes an ad ditional clause to the existing s.25 of the Immigration Act 1971 that would effectively provide for licensed immigration advisers.

The regulations governing such licensing would be controlled by the secretary of state, not the Lord Chancellor, and -- despite their extensive training, expertise, continuing professional development requirements and professional conduct rules -- solicitors would arguably not be exempt from taking additional exams.It is iniquitous that there are unscrupulous racketeers who make money out of desperate people.

But most solicitors do not fall into that category and those who do are professionally disciplined.

The proposed amending clause does not delete the criminal offence elements of advice-giving and places the 'opponent' in many cases -- that is the secretary of state -- in the position of determining who should be eligible to give advice.

It also requires an additional qualification to be able to practise in an area of law -- a requirement that is not demanded for any other specialty.Cl 5 must be excluded from the Bill.

If it remains, vulnerable clients will lose the right and ability to obtain legal advice unless solicitors are willing to risk imprisonment.

I would urge all solicitors to write to their MPs.

Further information is available from the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA); tel 0171 434 3690.