UK Borders Bill

I was in the middle of my speech. I am grateful to noble Lords for their interventions because they have enabled me to find the paragraph in the Select Committee report on the point that I raised and to which the noble Lord, Lord Judd, referred. It says that there are cases in which people have been denied maternity and antenatal care in hospitals. It says: "““This is inconsistent with the principles of common humanity and with the UK's obligations under ECHR Articles 2, 3 and 8 … We recommend that the Government suspend all charges for antenatal, maternity and peri-natal care. We recommend that all maternity care should be free to those who have claimed asylum, including those whose claim has failed, until voluntary departure or removal from the UK””." That could not be plainer. Whatever the Minister says, it is not happening and that was the subject of an article in yesterday's Guardian. I urge the Minister to read paragraphs 140 to 143 of the Select Commission report, The Treatment of Asylum Seekers, and to tell your Lordships, if he can, whether the Government accepted that recommendation, and, if they did, what is his answer to the fact that these things are still happening in some PCTs. Women are being denied access to antenatal and maternity care, contrary to the recommendation of the JCHR. I am afraid that once people have these BIDs, every time they walk into a hospital, someone will say, ““You’re not entitled to medical care because I see from your BID that you have reached the limit of your permitted leave to remain and, therefore, you are an over-stayer””.