Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

As the noble Lord has indicated, the amendment provides for leave to continue following a decision to refuse to vary leave during any period in which an appeal against the decision could be brought. There are some technical problems with the amendment and it would not do what the noble Lord hopes. I refer to the relevant part of Section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, which refers to variation appeals only which are abolished by Clause 1(2) of this Bill. I accept the importance of ensuring that those who comply with the terms of their leave and wish to challenge an adverse decision made in respect of them are not penalised for doing so. That is what Clause 13 is about. I repeat that we are committed to not endorsing the passports of those who remain in the UK to exercise an in-country right of appeal against a removal decision or who leave voluntarily following an adverse decision on a variation application. The critically important part of this, as I indicated on our previous Committee day, is that I am looking at the provisions concerning variation appeals in Clause 1 in the light of the discussion that we had in Committee. If in-country rights of appeal were to be restored in variation cases, these issues simply would not arise. I will not say any more about that at this point because I am being brief. However, I hope that the noble Lord will accept the firm commitment on passports, the relevance of Clause 13 and that he will look again at the technical issues concerning the amendment. However, most importantly of all, I hope that he will note I have made it very clear that I intend to take away Clause 1 to consider in-country appeals again. I hope that on that basis the amendment can be withdrawn.