UK Borders Bill

I think I was saying that drugs, immigration, security and terrorism are reserved matters, but there is a close inter-relationship between the subject matter of the Bill and the police, who are devolved to Scotland. Given that, not only do we have the right to discuss this matter, but the Westminster Parliament—no doubt with the agreement of the Scottish Executive—will decide on it. It is therefore appropriate to discuss the issue under this Bill. It has been argued that while the police routinely maintain a presence at Scottish airports, that is not necessarily the case in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, that does not seem to hold up. Only last Thursday I landed at Dundee airport, which is not a place where there are normally immigration officers, and there were seven jet aeroplanes on the tarmac. I think most of them had landed from abroad because of the Open golf championship. I have no doubt that immigration officers came to Dundee on that occasion. I wonder about the heliport at Salen on the Isle of Mull; people could arrive there. I have a relative who flies there constantly, although not from abroad. However, I am sure people arrive from abroad sometimes. So it is not true to say that there are only seven ports of entry. The assumption that the situation is different in Scotland is artificial. Surely there are situations in Scotland similar to those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland where the police, for whatever reason, are not present at a given moment when an immigration officer requires their presence. A noble Lord told me today that he flies frequently to Glasgow airport with sporting shotguns. There is a by-law in Glasgow that if shotguns arrive they have to be checked by the police, and he often has to wait 20 minutes for a policeman to be found. Immigration officers are probably not present where he arrives, but there is a shortage of police. They have many things to do in a big airport and they are not necessarily always there when the moment arrives. So where it takes time for the police to appear, it would be very convenient if the immigration officer could perform some tasks instead, which is what the Bill would allow. There was a report in the press that people are entering the United Kingdom via Orkney and Shetland from the Faroe Islands. I do not know what the situation is in Orkney or Shetland when that happens, but there is anxiety within the Scottish Executive about that fact. There was also a report, which has never been denied, that when the suicide attempt was made at the entrance to Glasgow airport there were no armed police present even though it was a time of high security. That is not directly relevant to the Bill, but it shows that police arrangements can go awry. It is unwise to say that Scotland could never have a situation where we would be greatly helped if immigration officers could do the job that we require the police to do at the moment. If we have these fail-safe arrangements for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there is little point in having no fail-safe arrangements protecting Scotland. As a Scot, I would greatly regret it if the Scots Parliament does not see that. I do not know whether it wants to legislate on this, but it would be so much easier if it simply, by way of a Sewell Motion before Report stage, made Clauses 1 and 4 applicable to Scotland. My noble friend raised the interesting point of whether the Scottish Executive stance is illegal. Although I did not read it all, the extract from the Act of Union might well be something for the Advocate-General or the Lord Advocate to look at in order to make sure that we are not doing ourselves out of a protection given to us in Scotland by the Act of Union so many years ago. This is a serious point. In view of the Prime Minister’s Statement that biometric checks will be made on everyone coming into the country, an immigration officer in Scotland may be worried that a certain person should not be there or is not telling the truth. He wants to hold them for up to three hours until he can get hold of a policeman. That could easily happen and I hope that the Government will go back to Mr Salmond to see if he will change his mind. He has said that he is keen to co-operate with the Westminster Government on matters affecting the security of the people of Scotland. The Government could enforce it if the Westminster Parliament insists, but no doubt they would not want to do that. Mr Salmond is trying to be as statesmanlike as possible in his dealings with the rest of the United Kingdom. I am sure that he will respond to this.