UK Borders Bill

moved Amendment No. 5: 5: After Clause 1, insert the following new Clause— ““Complaints (1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations make provision for the handling of complaints relating to, or other instances of misconduct involving, the carrying out by any person designated under section 1 of the functions for the purposes of which any power or duty is conferred or imposed by his designation. (2) The Police Reform Act 2000 (c. 30) is amended as follows. (3) In section 10 (general functions of the Commission), after subsection (3)(d) insert— ““(e) any regulations under section (Complaints) of the UK Borders Act 2006.””.”” The noble Lord said: This amendment will ensure that a proper complaints procedure is in place for those who feel that they have not been properly treated by allowing them to use the Independent Police Complaints Commission, as my noble friend Lord Dholakia said under another amendment. We would anticipate that the use of the IPCC would occur only very rarely as, if we are successful in persuading the Government to accept some amendment similar to that of the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, on training at a later stage, immigration officers would operate to a very high standard. The Minister has assured us that that will be so. It is important that in the event of something going wrong a person would be able to make a complaint to an independent body and that they would be confident of the procedures that that body uses to investigate the complaint and that specific action will be taken to resolve the complaint. The Minister in another place said that following the augmented role for the IPCC in specified functions provided for in Section 41 of the Police and Justice Act 2006, a consultation was planned on what precisely the IPCC’s remit should be. I assume that that was not intended to be a formal consultation because I could not find any mention of it on the Home Office website. We would like to know how it is being conducted, and on the basis of what draft proposals. The Minister said that the consultation on precisely which immigration functions would be subject to the IPCC’s scrutiny would commence on 7 May and that he hoped that by the end of July or into the summer the consultation would be complete so that over the summer the Government could lay regulations. We would like to see the draft proposals that were tabled on 7 May to have an opportunity to comment on them during the passage of this Bill through Grand Committee or, if that is not possible, at the very latest, at Report stage so that we can have a say before the regulations are set in stone. I beg to move.