Home Office Research report 70 presents the findings of the evaluation of the Early Legal Advice Project (ELAP) which was provided for asylum seekers in the Midlands and East of England between November 2010 and December 2012.
The research found that applying the ELAP process to asylum applications had no discernable impact on the quality of decisions, or on the appeal rate or on appeal outcomes. Decisions took longer to reach and the process cost more on average for adult single cases.
There were however softer benefits: ELAP was shown to benefit the decision making process for complex cases through early provision of evidence and witness statements and good working relationships were established between legal representatives and case owners.
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