Law Commission to tackle "excessive length and complexity" and make Rules "simpler and more accessible"
Colin Yeo reported on Free Movement today that the Law Commission has begun "preliminary work around a project to simplify the Immigration Rules".
Home Secretary Amber Rudd responded to a question while giving evidence before the Home Affairs Committee last week by saying: "I have already requested the Law Commission to review our immigration laws with a view to simplifying them. There were 20,000 different pieces of regulation for non-EU regulations and we have now got them down to 4,000. It is incredibly important—I share your frustration—and this is a personal mission of mine to make sure that we simplify the immigration [rules] so that your constituents and mine can use it in a more user-friendly way and that it can just be clearer for people where they can and where they can't apply."
According to Colin Yeo, before Rudd's announcement, Law Commission staff had already begun meetings for a project that would "review the Immigration Rules to identify principles under which they could be redrafted to make them simpler and more accessible to the user, and for that clarity to be maintained in the years to come."
The Law Commission says there is "excessive length and complexity" in the current Immigration Rules.
While the project still needs to be signed off by the Lord Chancellor, it is intended that the project will be included in the 13th Programme of Law Reform. Nicholas Paines QC will be the lead commissioner.