Public Enquiry Office
1st Floor
Lunar House
40 Wel esley Road
Croydon
CR0 2AJ
Hayden Walton
Web:
www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk
[FOI #17799 email]
15 March 2010
Re: 14094
Dear Mr Walton
Thank you for your letter from September 2009, in which you ask for information
relating to the Concessionary Same Day Third Party Legal Representatives Service
available in the Public Enquiry Office Croydon. Your request has been handled as a
request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You have asked for information concerning the criteria for determining how pre-
approved slots are allocated to individual representatives. Al Third Party
Representatives who request registration to use the Premium Same Day Third Party
Representative Concessionary Service must be registered with the Office of
Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC) or Law Society. These bodies regulate
the actions of individual companies. As our service is concessionary the UKBA
reserve the right to remove access to a representative at any time. Companies with
the correct registration are admitted to our list and sent an induction letter outlining
an acceptable code of conduct, contact details and present acceptable appointment
types. Misconduct by a representative or courier wil result in a warning or expulsion
from the service. Representatives who attempt to sell or pass on there slots to other
companies wil be removed from our list.
You have further requested information as to what procedures - given the fact that
some companies have more slot al ocations than others -are in place to ensure fair
and open competition among the individual companies to submit applications, the
criteria used for establishing how many slots an individual company receives and the
processes that we follow.
The service allocates slots to representatives to present applications on behalf of
clients through a Regular User and Ad Hoc list. Regular users have previously shown
commitment to the presentation of a set amount of cases each week and are placed
on the Regular User List. Other companies seek the advantages of this service but
are not in a position to commit to a weekly presentation and are therefore placed on
the Ad Hoc list.
From February 1st 2010 - 250 individual companies were registered on the Regular
User List and 359 on the Ad Hoc List.
New representatives are initial y placed on the ad hoc list but if it is shown that they
regularly submit cases each week the company wil be offered a regular slot when
available. Slot allocations on the regular user list average 3 to 4 each week.
Ad hoc users send an email request to a pre-assigned Third Party In Box where each
request is dealt with on a first come first served basis. Representatives receive a
reply with a date and slot al owance to return. The target time is within 48 hours.
The amount of slots available is dictated to by the amount of officers available to
consider the cases. An average daily target for the team is 80 main applications
excluding the dependents. To increase our slot allocation the Third Party Service has
offered weekend slots to those companies who were unable to secure a slot during
the week days.
To ensure equal distribution of slots all al ocations are carefully balanced. The Ad
Hoc list offers an average of 40 slots a day this is approx half of the total available
daily allocations. The Ad Hoc list is reserved only for it’s users but because the
nature of this list al ows the representative maximum flexibility the UKBA must
balance this with a required daily intake of applications. The regular users provide a
regular guaranteed 50% of our daily workload.
The Third Party Service requires al companies to equally request via e mail the
application types that fall under new rules or require additional casework time and
are the most sought after slots. The introduction of the Points Based System is the
latest change to the Immigration Rules. Al Representatives whether listed as a
regular user or ad hoc user are required to e mail a request for this slot type.
We review our entire data base twice a year. Based on the last three months
presentation of cases a company who is presently on the regular user list may be
advised that they wil have there slot al owance either reduced or increased. Those
using their slot al owance will not be affected. Companies on the ad hoc list who have
regularly submitted cases will be offered a place on the Regular user list with a slot
allowance. According to the amount of slots available new companies will then be
added to the ad hoc list. The numbers of slots available will always be reflective of
the number of staff and case types acceptable to the premium service.
I hope that this information meets your requirements. I would like to assure you that
we have provided you with all relevant information that the Home Office holds.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal
review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to
the address below, quoting reference 14094. If you ask for an internal review, it
would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.
UK Border Agency cases:
The Deputy Director
UK Border Agency
Freedom of Information Team
11th Floor
Lunar House
40 Wel esley Road
Croydon CR9 2BY
e-mail: [email address]
As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request
wil be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response.
If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of
complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the
Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
Evelyn Flynn
Third Party Representatives Manager.
