UK Borders Bill

I will try to cap this one off, because we need to move on. It is not something that we can put in the Bill, but it is the sort of issue that can be clarified in regulations. I am not going to get drawn into commenting on every individual case that noble Lords raised in the Committee proceedings; that is not the purpose of a Committee that is here to look line by line at the contents of a piece of legislation. That is pretty much where we best leave these things. On the healthcare point, just to put it on the record, the purpose of the biometric immigration document is to help identify a foreign national securely and reliably and to confirm the holder’s immigration status. That is its principal purpose. I argue that in the end it would help healthcare officials to identify whether someone is entitled to free treatment. That would be a positive. What then happens with that individual will relate to their circumstances. Not much more can be drawn from this. The purpose is rather narrower than the noble Lord has tried to suggest during this discussion; it is very specific, and that is what that part of those clauses relates to.