Guidance

Premises

Updated 12 June 2019

1. The Premises

The term ‘premises’ refers to any office or meeting rooms, access to and within a building, reception and any other facilities and the immediate surroundings used by the organisation in the course of business. This includes where a registered organisation provides immigration and services from a residential address which acts as its office premises.

Code 12 of the Code of Standards requires registered organisations to act always in the best interest of its clients. The premises from which an organisation operates should not prejudice the safety or welfare of clients or compromise their best interest.

The office premises must be located and designed to ensure that the safety of clients and other visitors, including OISC staff, is not put at risk. Access to, and within, an organisation’s premises, for example to interview rooms, toilets and stairs, must not jeopardise the safety of visitors or pose any undue risk to them. Advisers must also consider whether their professional indemnity insurance will cover them when providing advice from their premises.

It is good practice, whether or not registered organisations are in a shared or serviced building, for each authorised adviser or other member of staff to lock their computers if away from them for a significant period of time. Each authorised adviser and all other staff must also ensure that their computer is password protected.

2. Confidentiality

It is expected that premises will be suitable to enable a registered organisation to satisfy the requirements of Codes 27 and 28 relating to confidentiality. There must be adequate space for clients to be able to sit and discuss their cases in a confidential setting, or for authorised advisers to hold private conversations with clients or with each other. In addition, the premises must have enough space, and the facilities, to enable client files to be held securely

Where the premises of a registered organisation is in a shared or serviced building (shared with either other OISC registered organisations or with separate businesses), the registered organisation must ensure that it continues to comply with the confidentiality requirements under Codes 27 and 28. This might include, although the list is not exhaustive, the following:

• the registered organisation must ensure that the door to the office is locked when no member of staff is present;

• there must be a system in place whereby incoming post is either logged with staff employed by the building provider and held for the registered organisation until collected by an authorised adviser, or securely stored for the registered organisation to collect, in a separate post box for example; and

• registered organisations or a registered organisation and a separate business should not share and use the same office space at the same time.

3. Complying with UK Legislation

Registered organisations are required to always act in accordance with UK law, pursuant to Code 1 of the Code of Standards. Such organisations and the premises from which they practise must therefore conform to all required legislation.

Health and Safety Regulations set minimum standards for employers and their business premises. Registered organisations can find more information about this on the Health and Safety Executive’s website

The Equality Act 2010 requires that where a disabled person is at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with people who are not disabled, there is a duty to take reasonable steps to remove that disadvantage by:

• changing provisions, criteria or practices;

• altering or removing a physical feature or providing a reasonable alternative means of avoiding the feature; and  providing auxiliary aids.

An adjustment should, as far as possible, remove or reduce any disadvantage faced by either a disabled worker (an authorised adviser or other employee, for example) or a client. A registered organisation should consider whether the adjustment is reasonable. This might include how effective that change will be in avoiding the disadvantage the individual might otherwise experience due to the disability, the practicality of making the adjustment and the cost.

Where no physical adjustments to the premises can be considered reasonable, it is possible for a registered organisation to provide its services by other means, such as by visiting the client, or by communicating by telephone. A registered organisation can find further advice on this subject from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.