UK Borders Bill

The offer has become better still. Sometimes, legal barriers prevent us from deporting people. The individual may be unfit for travel, there may be an outstanding judicial review, or travel documentation may be unavailable, which would make it difficult in practice to enforce the provisions proposed by the hon. Member for Ashford, however sympathetic I am to them. Amendment No. 8 would provide automatic deportation for all immigration offences. I would make two points. First, when it comes to assault of an immigration officer, common assault is listed in section 72, so it would attract automatic deportation. Secondly, we must remember that immigration offences are a broad class of offence and I do not necessarily think that we would want automatically to deport someone who, for example, had overstayed their visa for a couple of days to attend a graduation. I have received representations from Members on both sides of the House on such cases, particularly if someone cannot come back in after they are deported, so I would find it difficult to accept the amendment. It is important, however, to look again at the measures that we have proposed for consecutive and suspended sentences. The hon. Member for Ashford tabled amendments Nos. 9 and 10, which are slightly unclear at the edges. I was not certain whether he was seeking to exempt people given sentences in institutions or hospitals or to exclude indeterminate sentences—that may, on one reading, be the outcome of the amendments. We believe that indeterminate sentences should be included in the remit of the provisions and time served in institutions, such as young offenders institutions, should be included. We think that time served in hospitals should be included, too. We differ on the question that was posed in Committee by the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison) about whether we should include in the automatic deportation provisions consecutive and aggregated sentences. I find it very difficult to construct a solution that would solve the problem of offences and sentences that are handed down at different points in time. It is possible, for example, for an individual to be convicted of two different offences 30 years apart and for the cumulative sentences to add up to more than 12 months. In some cases, it is difficult to see how automatic deportation should apply, so it is important to preserve the right of in-country appeal. The individual should still face deportation, but there may be appeal rights that it is important to retain. On the question of suspended sentences, we have come to a quite different conclusion. The key issue to which Committee members sought to draw our attention was what we should do about recidivists. Members will be delighted to learn that since the Committee stage, I have undertaken my own study of reoffending across 19 crime areas, where the rate of reoffending within two years ranged from 10 or 12 per cent. to 80 per cent. The assurance that I can give the House is that 13 of the 19 categories of offence are section 72 offences, so they would attract automatic deportation. There are a couple of offences not in section 72 that we should consider, in particular drink driving offences and soliciting and prostitution. We will give the matter further consideration before we lay a new section 72 order later this year. That would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure in the House, so hon. Members would be able to comment. Offences such as violence, theft, burglary and robbery, as well as drug offences, are already included—many of the issues that were raised in Committee. I am not sure, from memory, whether theft of electricity is included, but burning down houses, another case that we discussed at length in Committee, is covered. The important thing is that there should be an opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny of the order. The Government amendments provide that if somebody is given a suspended 12-month sentence or a suspended sentence for a section 72 offence, and any part of that sentence is subsequently activated, the automatic deportation provisions will apply. We think that if somebody is given a suspended sentence, in effect the court is saying, ““The sentence that we are giving you is an indication that you haven’t committed an offence so serious that you should automatically be deported.”” The individual therefore has a chance to play their cards right and stay in the country. If, however, they commit an offence and the suspended sentence is activated for whatever period, they have had their chance and blown it and the automatic deportation provisions should take effect. We spent a great deal of time debating the matter in Committee and I am grateful to hon. Members for their contribution. These tougher provisions are right. Overall, the provisions are important. I said on Second Reading that there are 8,000 to 10,000 foreign nationals in our jails. We think that the provisions will apply to about 4,500—a substantial number—which sends out a clear signal not only to the British public, but to the foreign nationals who are here to enjoy our hospitality, that criminality cannot and will not be tolerated.