UK Borders Bill

The arguments have not moved on greatly since that consideration. I listened very carefully to what the noble Lord, Lord Henley, had to say. He is right to anticipate my response that the role of the chief inspector for the Border and Immigration Agency, which Clauses 47 to 55 introduce, will of course include the operation of Clause 19 as part of the inspector’s duty quite properly to consider the treatment of appellants. This would introduce a disproportionate and unnecessary, even overburdening, reporting requirement, and would make the whole process rather more bureaucratic than it needs to be. We are often upbraided for introducing disproportionate and unreasonable reporting requirements on those who are involved in monitoring or law enforcement. I am sensitive to those issues. We should apply those duties with care. It is also worth saying that, in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines, our regulatory impact assessment in any event commits us to conducting a post-implementation review of the whole Bill, including Clause 19. A copy of that report will be placed in the Library of each House. The further report demanded by the amendment would be unnecessary, and it would not justify the resources required to prepare it. It would also introduce unnecessary duplication. I hope that the noble Lord will consider those points and withdraw his amendment.