The Legal Aid Agency Detained Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS) in IRCs
The Legal Aid Agency gives contracts to a number of solicitor firms to run regular legal advice surgeries in IRCs. Only provider firms with this specific type of contract can give publicly funded legal advice in IRCs. If a lawyer is already representing someone on Legal Aid, they need to have done 5 hours work on the case in the event the person is detained, to continue representation if they don’t have a detained contract. Otherwise the file is meant to be closed and detained person go to a surgery.
The Detained Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS) gives 30 minutes of free non-means and non-merits tested legal advice to people held in immigration removal centres. To book an appointment, people in detention should ask at the library for an appointment or ask a welfare officer. People in detention can refer themselves directly to a provider who has a contract for that centre, outside of the surgeries. However, the provider can refuse instructions in this circumstance if they do not have capacity (they are only obliged to take on clients seen at a surgery).
It is useful for people in detention to gather information in advance of a DDAS appointment to allow the provider firm on the rota for that day to apply the means and merits test. During the appointment, the provider should assess the persons eligibility for legal aid and give advice with regards to bail. The thirty minute slot given at these surgeries is not sufficient to give any substantive advice. At the end of the appointment, they must give the person in detention a copy of the appointment summary [1]. A decision on whether or not to assist that person is generally taken later off-site. If they are assessed to meet the criteria for legal aid, their case should be taken on by the provider. If someone you are visiting attends an advice surgery or sees a lawyer, encourage them to obtain their contact details so the lawyer can be chased later.
If the merits and means test is passed the provider must take the client on and continue to represent them with respect to detention issues until they are released from detention or removed from the UK. With respect to the substantive immigration issue, the provider must represent them so long as the means and the merits test continue to be met. If neither are met, they must still continue to represent in respect to detention issues, including bail even if they are not being represented in their bail matter. In practice however, it appears that this happens infrequently. Solicitors routinely close the client’s file at this point, leaving people without legal scrutiny of their ongoing detention. As a visitor you may be able to help by deciphering correspondence, and helping the person you are visiting to challenge a decision to cease providing advice on detention issues.
If someone is transferred to another IRC outside the geographic area of the legal aid contract of his, her or their solicitor, that solicitor can often no longer act for them, and they will need to seek another legal aid solicitor. This may take some weeks. If someone who you visit has just been transferred to the IRC it could be helpful to bring this to their attention so they can take any necessary steps to ensure continuity of advice and representation. You can also support them to contact their previous representative, make them aware that the person you are visiting has been transferred and clarify if they will continue to offer representation.
Those who are transferred between detention centres from England to Dungavel in Scotland will be unable to continue to use the same legal representative because each country has a separate legal aid system.
AVID receives the rota for the Legal Aid Agency’s Detention Duty Advice Scheme in IRCs. These are made available to group co-ordinators and you can contact them or AVID to receive these rotas.
Challenges
The DDAS used to be delivered by a select group of nine solicitors’ firms who had a great deal of experience representing detained people. Changes in 2018/19 resulted in a significant expansion of DDAS providers from 9 to 77. Of these, 38 firms had no prior experience with legal aid work at all and 64 firms had no prior experience of the DDAS. Many have dropped out, but there are still around 45 DDAS providers.
There have been ongoing problems following this expansion. A legal challenge to the scheme failed but revealed that in 2022 a “significant number of providers had recorded no or hardly any bail claims despite seeing numerous clients. 9 of them have never made a single bail application despite having carried out approximately 1,000 advice sessions in total” (R (Detention Action) v Lord Chancellor [2022] EWHC 18 (Admin)).
Further Reading
Jesuit Refugee Service published a report (July 2025) on the Detention Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS). This is available at: https://www.jrsuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Accessing-legal-advice-in-detention-July-2025.pdf. They conducted a casework analysis from people held in Harmondsworth and Colnbrook IRCs between August 2024 and June 2025 and held a survey with 45 people with people they met with in welfare surgeries in Harmondsworth IRC about their access to legal advice. Amongst a multitude of failures they found that:
People struggled to access legal advice via the DDAS. Only 38% (18 out of 47) of participants had legal representation at all and only 30% (14 out of 47) had legal representation via the DDAS.
Where people did access legal advice through the DDAS, this was often only for part of their case.
Poor quality of legal advice through the DDAS for example, lack of responsiveness or even misrepresentation of someone's case.
Lack of in person legal support with most DDAS appointments happening via phone.
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) carries out regular surveys with people in detention to find out about their experience of seeking and receiving immigration legal advice. These are available here: https://www.biduk.org/pages/106-bid-legal-advice-surveys.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) conduct unannounced inspections including on access to legal rights for people in detention. For example their inspection of Colnbrook (2025) found that only 45% of those surveyed in detention said they had received free legal advice in Colnbrook and only 52% of those who had an immigration lawyer said it was easy to contact them, with just 20% receiving a legal visit. Echoing JRS's report, welfare staff reported that DDAS solicitors often did not use an interpreter for consultations and that it could take weeks for solicitors to confirm that they were taking on someone's case, often proving difficult to contact by phone. HMIP reports are available at: https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/our-reports/.
https://legalaidlearning.justice.gov.uk/pluginfile.php/23343/block_html/content/DDAS%20webinar%20September%202023.pdf
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