Deadline: 1-Sep-25
Applications are now open for the Strategic Legal Fund (SLF) to support legal work in the UK that goes beyond securing justice for an individual and makes a significant contribution to law, practice and procedures to uphold and promote the rights of people seeking asylum, refugees and migrants more generally.
The SLF aims to tackle injustices and inconsistencies in law and practice that disadvantage or discriminate against asylum seekers, refugees and migrants as a result of their migration status
Areas of Law
- The SLF funds strategic legal work in any area of law where asylum seekers, refugees and migrants experience disadvantage or discrimination as a result of migration status. This includes (but is not restricted to) potential cases in the areas of:
- Immigration
- Asylum and asylum support
- Human rights
- Education
- Housing
- Welfare benefits
- Discrimination
- Access to justice
- Community care
Funding Information
- Maximum funding for any one application will be £30,000 but, in view of the limited funding available, lower applications are encouraged. The average grant size is around £12,000.
- The maximum grant length is 12 months, and most grants are for six months or less.
Beneficiaries
- The SLF supports strategic legal work in the UK which benefits asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. They define this as those:
- Who are living in poverty, and
- Who face significant disadvantage or discrimination in connection with their immigration status.
Eligible Activities
- The SLF only supports strategic legal work carried out in the UK. They define this as work where the impact is likely to go beyond an individual case, and to result in changes to law, policy and practice that will benefit a wider group of people. Applications must be to fund one of two kinds of strategic legal work:
- the research and development of cases pre-litigation including: gathering evidence to test a hypothesis or research to establish authorities’ policy and practice, identifying potential plaintiffs/applicants/appellants; researching whether to proceed; translating relevant material; and evaluating a litigation strategy.
- third party “interventions” in existing cases, which allow a non-party intervener to assist the court in arriving in its decision in a case, acting as an amicus curiae, a friend of the court.
Eligibility Criteria
- The SLF will cover any reasonable revenue costs that you will incur to undertake the proposed pre-litigation research or to prepare a third party intervention. This includes temporary staffing, freeing up or extending existing staff hours, volunteer expenses, travel and subcontracting with other voluntary and community organisations.
- The SLF is intended to generate new resources for strategic legal work. They therefore fund new or additional costs and capacity, rather than contributing to an organisation’s existing expenditure. However, a contribution to overheads may be included.
- Staffing costs should reflect their real costs to your organisation and be no higher than appropriate legal aid rates. If work is costed above legal aid rates, then please explain why. For more information about what legal aid rates the SLF accepts, please contact the project manager.
Ineligibility Criteria
- In general, the SLF will not make grants where:
- Funding is sought for pre-litigation research on an issue where work is already in progress by other legal representatives.
- There is an unreasonably low prospect of a positive outcome for migrant groups.
- The funding will not produce any significant positive change to the rights of vulnerable asylum seekers, refugees or migrants in the UK.
- The applicant is based outside of the UK. Partnership applications where the lead partner is based in the UK may be considered.
- It is judged that the goals of the application may be more successfully achieved through an alternative route e.g. policy work.
- Organisations have already received two grants from the SLF in the last 18 months, except in exceptional circumstances.
- Organisations are in serious financial deficit.
- Not-for-profit organisations have significant unrestricted reserves (including designated funds). Generally, reserves up to the equivalent of six months’ expenditure is acceptable.
For more information, visit SLF.