Consultation on changes to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner's fee structure
Published 14 March 2024
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March 2024
About this consultation
1. This consultation is led by the Home Office in collaboration with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) as part of a review into the structure of the fees charged by the OISC to its registered organisations. The fee structure is set by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The level of the fees should be set in accordance with HM Treasury rules on Managing Public Money May 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk) which govern that fees should recover the full costs of providing a service to prevent a burden on the taxpayer.
2. This consultation paper will be of interest to OISC registered organisations and immigration advisers, those who may be considering OISC registration or those who are authorised to provide immigration advice and services by other regulators or professional bodies such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society of Scotland, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, the Bar Standards Board (or Scottish and Northern Ireland equivalents), or the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
3. This consultation is being conducted in accordance with the consultation principles that govern the activities that government departments and other public bodies should adopt for engaging stakeholders when developing policy and legislation: Consultation principles: guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
4. We have engaged with HM Treasury (HMT) on these proposals. On collation and analysis of the consultation responses we will engage with HMT again.
5. We want to thank those organisations we met with in informal discussions who provided us with valuable opinions on the proposed changes.
6. The consultation period begins 14 March 2024 and ends 5 June 2024. Please ensure that your response reaches us by that date as any replies received after this may not be taken into account.
About the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner
7. The OISC is an independent non-departmental public body (NDPB) established by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (legislation.gov.uk) to regulate the provision of immigration advice and services throughout the UK.
8. The OISC is headed by the Immigration Services Commissioner. The Commissioner’s general duty is to promote good practice in the giving of immigration advice.
9. The OISC is responsible for:
- admitting immigration advisers into its regulatory scheme
- maintaining and publishing the register of advisers
- regulating immigration advisers in accordance with the Commissioner’s Code of Standards
- taking action against those that operate illegally outside of the scheme
- receiving complaints about immigration advisers irrespective of whether or not they are regulated by the OISC
- promoting good practice in the immigration advice sector
10. The OISC regulates over 3,000 individual immigration advisers and 1,600 organisations. Making best use of resources, the OISC aims to ensure that everyone who is seeking immigration advice receives good and reliable advice and is protected from the risks and dangers of illegal advice or poor service.
11. The OISC has the power to take enforcement action against regulated organisations/advisers identified as acting improperly and can prosecute those who provide advice while unregulated.
12. Full information about the Commissioner’s functions and the types of organisations and advisers which the OISC regulates can be found here: Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). In addition, the OISC monitors the effectiveness of regulation of the immigration advice sector by bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland which are beyond the jurisdiction of the Legal Services Board.
Fees
13. The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (legislation.gov.uk) Schedule 6, Section 85 gives the power for the Immigration Services Commissioner to charge organisations for registration and continued registration. The structure and level of fees charged to OISC regulated advisers is set by the Home Office as set out in The Immigration Services Commissioner (Application Fee) Order 2011 (legislation.gov.uk)
14. There has been no significant amendment to the structure of fee charging since the OISC was established in 2000, despite significant changes to the immigration system and the advice sector. The fees were last amended in May 2022 increasing them in line with the uprating in inflation, see OISC Registration Fee Increase May 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
15. The OISC has a charging system for registration and grants registration to the organisation with individual advisers granted authorisation within the organisation’s terms of registration. Currently only the organisation is charged a fee.
16. The amount charged depends upon the level of authorised advice, and the number of registered advisers working for the organisation. The minimum fee of £733 p/a applies to organisations / advisers providing advice related to applications which fall within the Immigration Rules (Level 1) advice. Level 1 organisations are not charged any increased fees irrespective of the number of advisers working within the organisation. The maximum fee, for organisations with 10 or more advisers providing advice up to Level 3 (complex casework and advocacy), is £2,698 per annum.
Table 1: current fee levels 2022 to 2023
| Level | New registration | Continued registration |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | £733 | £733 |
| Level 2 / 3 (1-4 advisers) | £2,232 | £1,646 |
| Level 2 / 3 (5-9 advisers) | £2,500 | £2,041 |
| Level 2 / 3 (10 plus advisers) | £3,023 | £2,698 |
17. The Commissioner has the discretion to waive fees charged to those who do not charge a fee themselves as set out in The Immigration Services Commissioner (Application Fee) (Amendment) Order 2014 (legislation.gov.uk). The Commissioner currently waives the fees for non-fee charging organisations who do not pay fees for registration.
Desired outcomes
18. The fee charge at present does not cover the cost of the regulatory activity. We would like to change the fee charging model with the aim of moving OISC towards recovering the costs of regulation in line with HM Treasury Managing Public Money requirements. For this to happen fundamental changes are needed.
19. The OISC aims to ensure that advice seekers receive high quality services from regulated advisers. Within this sector, good practice will be the norm and the advice seeker will be protected from poor quality and illegal advice provision.
20. To deliver on these aims the OISC must operate an effective regulatory scheme, which ensures that fit and competent advisers can register with the Commissioner and advice seekers can find advisers who provide services that meet their needs. Sufficient checks and support must be operated by the Commissioner to ensure regulated advisers and organisations remain fit and competent in the services they deliver. The Commissioner must be able to investigate and take action against those who do not meet the required standards and those that bring the sector into disrepute.
21. These regulatory functions are in addition to statutory responsibilities to take action against advisers who provide immigration advice and services while unregulated.
22. The regulated immigration advice sector has changed since the original fee structure was designed in 2000. There has been a significant increase in the proportion of organisations and regulated advisers who now operate through charitable or ‘non-fee charging’ organisations. The extent of work being undertaken by advisers operating within the different OISC levels has changed and written assessments of competence have been introduced for new entrants to the scheme. The sector as a whole has matured and become increasingly professional in nature.
23. OISC regulation is now an established and respected brand within the immigration sector. It is sought after as a mark of quality and increasingly recognised by consumers, as such it has a commercial value.
24. Good quality advice and services benefits the Home Office by assisting clients to accurately present their cases, allowing effective decision making. The non-fee charging organisations provide a valuable service to the public increasing the provision of immigration advice particularly as demand for good quality immigration advice has continued to grow.
25. These changes within the sector have affected the costs of regulation and have led to a need to re-evaluate the appropriateness and indeed fairness of the current fee structure. Furthermore, the Treasury rules as set out in Managing Public Money say that the fees should be set to recover the cost of regulation, and the current fee structure does not allow this to be achieved. The income from fees is approximately £1.3 million, with the estimated cost of regulation to be £2.2 million.
26. By making changes to the fee structure the OISC can move closer towards cost recovery for the regulation of immigration advice. The proposal aims are to operate an effectively administered fee structure, that encourages good practice and high levels of responsibility, which is sensitive to the potential earnings of businesses, but is also justifiable in the equality of burden of costs and use of its services.
Specific issues to be addressed
Fairness of current fee structure
27. Both the initial registration and ongoing regulatory checks on authorised advisers within a regulated organisation incur regulatory costs. Currently these costs are carried only by Fee Charging organisations operating at level 2 or Level 3. These fees are applied through a broad banding system related to the number of advisers. These organisations are cross subsidising other regulated organisations.
28. The banding of adviser numbers at higher levels and the absence of any costs for authorised advisers at Level 1, means some organisations are paying above their regulatory costs while others are not paying sufficiently towards their regulatory costs.
29. The regulation of the organisation and authorisation through it of individual advisers as a model, is not aligned with other professional bodies, such as Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority, in terms of individuals paying initial registration and annual re-registration fees, which reflect that there is a benefit to the individual as a professional in being regulated.
30. The actual fees charged need to be re-calculated to ensure the OISC is recovering the costs of regulation with a reassessment of Level 1 and higher-level costs. The activities required to regulate a Level 1 organisation are much closer in nature to those required at the higher levels than was originally estimated. A smaller disparity should exist between the fees charged at lower and higher levels, with higher level organisations seeing their organisation fees reducing and lower-level organisations seeing their fees increasing. This may encourage more businesses to seek registration at the higher levels.
Changing demographic of the advice sector
31. The number of advisers working in the non-fee charging sector has increased year on year, from 701 in March 2017 to 1,625 as of February 2024.
The OISC regulation for this sector is currently unfunded. While the Home Office wishes to provide some support to the non-fee charging sector, the growth of this sector currently outstrips funding available.
Impact of charging only at the point of application
32. Fees can only be charged currently on applications for registration and continued registration. This narrow charging structure restricts the ability of the OISC to charge organisations based on the services required. This includes very clear costs such as competence assessments for applicant advisers, which cannot be charged separately from the application charges. The lack of direct charges related to the assessment and limited funding of the system has stretched resources available, affecting the quantity of assessments that can be provided and options to increase the quality of the assessment system.
33. The ability to pay for services as required may reduce the risks involved with paying for a full application for registration before applicant advisers have attained the necessary competence assessment pass. Staged payments for an application, assessment and ongoing regulation would be likely to help organisations spread the costs of attaining registration.
Proposals
34. To meet the objective of bringing fees in line with HM Treasury rules and to bring the charging model in line with other professional bodies we are considering amending the current structure to incorporate the proposals below.
In doing so we hope to share more fairly the costs of regulation with those who benefit from these services, provide the opportunity for fees to be more directly related to particular services required and reduce the barriers for organisations seeking registration at higher levels, to help address advice needs within the sector.
Proposal 1: new charges applied separately for organisations and individual advisers
35. In line with the model used by other legal regulators, a fee (reflecting regulatory activity undertaken) would be applied for the regulation of the organisation and a separate fee for the regulatory costs associated with each applicant or registered adviser. Fees for both the organisation and individual will apply at the initial registration point and subsequently at the annual renewal point.
36. The fee charged to an organisation would reflect the cost of regulating the organisation ensuring it is maintaining the standards of service and professionalism in line with OISC’s Code of Standards throughout the year. The term regulation here refers to the cost of audits, investigating complaints and supporting the organisation with advice, as well as the administration work associated with the organisation as one registered by OISC to provide immigration services.
37. The fee charged to an individual would reflect the cost of the work needed to ensure the individual is professionally knowledgeable and competent, and to check their fitness to practice as an immigration adviser on an ongoing basis whilst maintaining an appropriate register of qualified individuals, such as those undertaken by other professional bodies on their members.
38. New fees would reduce the disparity between the fees applicable for organisations and advisers registering at Level 1 and higher levels. Level 1 organisations are likely to experience an increase in fees, while organisations registered at Level 2 and 3 may see fees reduce.
39. For example, under the current fee structure a Level 1 organisation with 10 advisers will pay a single fee of £733. However, a Level 2 organisation with one adviser will pay £2,232 for registration. Advisers can apply to increase their level of authorisation, but if it is not at the point of application for continued registration, the work to assess fitness and competence at the higher level is not charged for, and OISC carries out this work free of charge.
Table 2: examples of proposed changes to fees (level 1 organisation)
| Fees | Organisation registration | Individual registration | Organisation re-registration | Individual re-registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current fees | £733 | £0 | £733 | £0 |
| Proposed fees | £1,011 | £329 | £1,037 | £103 |
Level 2/3 organisation current fees
| Fees | Organisation registration | Individual registration | Organisation re-registration | Individual re-registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 advisers | £2,232 | £0 | £1,646 | £0 |
| 5-9 advisers | £2,500 | £0 | £2,041 | £0 |
| 10 plus advisers | £3,023 | £0 | £2,698 | £0 |
Level 2/3 organisation proposed fees
| Fees | Organisation registration | Individual registration | Organisation re-registration | Individual re-registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proposed fee | £1,076 | £520 * | £1,037 | £103 |
*includes a level 1 and higher level assessment)
Proposal 2: introducing charges to the non-fee charging sector
40. The numbers of advisers providing advice through non-fee charging organisations, which pay no registration fees, has grown considerably since 2017. In March 2017 there were 701 advisers providing immigration advice and services within non-fee charging organisations regulated by the OISC. By February 2024, this figure had increased to 1,625 advisers.
41. Much of OISC’s regulatory activity is carried out without generating any income. Cross charging the fee-charging sector is not permitted under Treasury rules.
42. Organisation and individual adviser charges would be introduced to non-fee charging organisations to account for the cost of regulation.
43. The distinction between fee charging and non-fee charging organisations would be maintained, with some funding continuing to be provided by the Home Office to subsidise the regulatory income shortfall in relation to the fees to be applied to non-fee charging organisations.
44. To mitigate the impact, charges will be introduced over a three-year period and capped at a reduced rate of 50% of charges paid by fee-charging organisations.
45. For non-fee charging organisations already registered with the OISC, for continued registration in year 1 the organisation would pay 0% charges; this will increase at year 2 to 25%, and at year 3 the organisation will pay 50% of charges paid by fee-charging organisations. Non-fee charging organisations will however be responsible for 100% of the fees for individual advisers.
46. These proposals would allow OISC to recover a greater proportion of the cost of regulation and ensure a more logical and fairer charging structure.
47. The Commissioner would retain some ability to provide an exemption from fees for specified reasons.
Table 3: Example of proposed changes to fees for non-fee charging organisations and advisers
| Current fees | Organisation registration | Individual registration | Organisation re-registration | Individual re-registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Levels 1-3 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Proposed fees | Organisation registration | Individual registration | Organisation re-registration | Individual re-registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Levels 1 (year 1) | £0 | £329 * | £0 | £103 |
| Levels 1 (year 2) | £253 | £329 * | £259 | £103 |
| Levels 1 (year 3) | £506 | £329 * | £519 | £103 |
Key
*includes a level 1 assessment
| Proposed fees | Organisation registration | Individual registration | Organisation re-registration | Individual re-registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Levels 2/3 (year 1) | £0 | £520 * | £0 | £103 |
| Levels 2/3 (year 2) | £269 | £520 * | £259 | £103 |
| Levels 2/3 (year 3) | £538 | £520 * | £519 | £103 |
Key
*includes a level 1 and higher level assessment
Proposal 3: Introducing charges at different points or for specific services
48. Currently the Commissioner can only charge a single application fee for registration or continued registration. Amending this would allow the Commissioner to separate out charges for different aspects of an application. It would, for example, enable applicant or regulated organisations to pay separately and potentially in advance for an assessment of competence of their advisers. Charging for this prior to the payment for a full consideration of an application for registration or continued registration would reduce the cost risk to the organisation in applying for registration or an increase in their current registration levels. Organisations could pay for the assessment of their applicant advisers in advance of payment for a consideration of the fitness and competence of the organisation to practice and those who do not require an assessment would not incur the assessment fees.
49. The changes would also provide future opportunities to accommodate additional services that can be paid for separately, e.g., additional audits or compliance work which will also help to drive up standards. This may also include charges for a pre-application check or continuous professional development courses.
50. To introduce this proposal to charge at different points will require amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Summary
51. By making amendments to the current structure, incorporating the proposals as outlined means that OISC could share more fairly the costs of regulation with those who benefit from these services and provide the opportunity for fees to be more directly related to those services required.
It would bring the charging model in line with other professional bodies and address the objective of bringing fees in line with HM Treasury rules by moving closer to cost recovery, whilst recognising that the OISC will not reach full cost recovery due to the operation of the non-fee charging sector.
Next steps
52. This consultation closes on 05 June 2024. Once the consultation has closed, we will consider all responses received and make a decision on the future fee structure for the OISC. Responses received after the deadline may not be considered.
53. We will publish our response to the consultation, alongside any changes to the fee structure in due course. We will clearly communicate any changes.
How to respond
54. Please respond to this Consultation online.
You must respond by 5 June 2024.
55. Should you have any difficulty responding online, a paper copy of the consultation can be requested by emailing: [email protected]
Confidentiality
56. This consultation is being run via Smart Survey, a GDPR compliant platform. You can read more about how Smart Survey handles and processes your data here: SmartSurvey and GDPR - SmartSurvey
57. Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be published or disclosed in accordance with UK legislation (the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004). See our privacy policy for further information: Personal information charter - Home Office - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
58. During the consultation you will be given the opportunity to specify if you want the information you provide to be treated as confidential. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee confidentiality in all circumstances.
59. Responses published on GOV.UK websites will be summarised as part of the findings from this report. We will include information relating to organisations including organisation names and details around immigration services and fee structures. We will not include personal data of any individuals, including names, addresses, contact numbers, and any other instances of identifiable information.