From 11pm GMT today (Thursday 31 December 2020), the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) will begin work.
The IMA is a brand-new independent public body, which has been established under the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (EUWAA). The IMA will work to protect the rights of EU and EEA EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) citizens in the UK and Gibraltar.
Its purpose is to monitor how public bodies in the UK and Gibraltar implement and apply the citizens’ rights parts of the following agreements:
The IMA will have the power to receive complaints, launch inquires and initiate judicial review proceedings. The IMA will also have a role in reviewing the effectiveness of the citizens’ rights legislative framework, for instance by reviewing draft legislation. In exercising its functions, the IMA must have regard to the importance of dealing with general or systemic issues, as well as receiving and investigating individual complaints.
The IMA has its own website where the public can find further information on IMA and their work.
The IMA is an executive non-departmental public body (NDPB) and as an independent authority will be accountable to parliament through its sponsor department, the Ministry of Justice.
