UK Borders Bill

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Hanham in her amendment. When the issue was raised by my noble friend Lady Anelay in Grand Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, said that it was eye-catching but that it ignored the complexity of the challenge. Some of the complexity of the challenge has just been illustrated by my noble friend the Duke of Montrose. I appreciate that this is not a simple matter, but it is very important. The noble Lord, Lord Bassam, said in Grand Committee that the Government, "““retain an open mind regarding the longer term but, at this point, we are not persuaded””.—[Official Report, 2/7/07; col. GC 36.]" I suggest to the noble Lord that it is high time that the Government were persuaded. If we are to have proper control of our borders and to know who comes across our borders anywhere in the United Kingdom, we simply must do better than we are at the moment. We must have a more foolproof method. Whether my noble friend’s proposal is precisely the right one, I do not know, but we really need something better than we have. Following from what my noble friend the Duke of Montrose said, there is still a remarkable lack of appreciation of the seriousness of the matter in Scotland. That is reflected in the Scots Parliament and by the present Administration. It is rather strange that the Liberal Democrats are moving the amendment to the amendment today, yet their colleagues would not pay any attention to the matter when they were in power in Scotland. It seems that they were remarkably unaware of the seriousness of the position. Now, the Scottish National Party Executive are saying that they do not want Clauses 1 to 4 to apply in Scotland. That means that they do not want special immigration officers to have police powers anywhere in Scotland. I was speaking to two of our Scottish National Party Members at Westminster only yesterday. They are unaware of what is going on about this. It seems to me that the matter is in fact quite serious. If Scotland is wide open to anyone who comes, the whole of the United Kingdom is wide open, and vice versa. The pressure in Scotland is less at the moment because there is more room for newcomers and there is less concentration of immigrants, so there is less anxiety in Scotland. The Scottish National Party Administration is very keen to co-operate with the Westminster Government where that is necessary. Mr Salmond has said that over and over again. He is quite right and it seems to me necessary here. Can the Minister tell us exactly where the Government are now with Mr Salmond and his Administration; whether Clauses 1 to 4 will apply to Scotland; and, if not, what is the reason for that? It seems to me that any reason that there was is no longer valid, so I support my noble friend’s amendment.