UK Borders Bill

moved Amendment No. 2: 2: Clause 2, page 2, line 22, at end insert— ““(7) Section 145(1) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (c. 33) (codes of practice) applies to an immigration officer exercising any power under this section.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, in Grand Committee I drew attention to the concerns of the Joint Committee on Human Rights about the powers of immigration officers to detain, search and seize as proposed in the Bill. In its report of 21 May, the Joint Committee noted that the Government’s explicit purpose was to confer new powers on immigration officers that will be excisable in connection with criminal—other than immigration—offences. This, the Joint Committee believed, would make their role in support of the police a general policing function, which should therefore appropriately be regulated by the codes of practice under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Indeed, that was important in terms of rights established under the European convention. The Joint Committee was not convinced that the standard operating procedures to be introduced would be a sufficient substitute. The Joint Committee also emphasised the need for careful training of immigration officers. It has now been possible to study the draft designation principles and the draft standard operating procedures, which have been made available since the Grand Committee proceedings. They do not appear to remove the cause of concern. The safeguards are not as strong as those in the PACE codes and will not, it seems, be properly scrutinised by Parliament. There is, therefore, a need to insist on the applicability of the PACE codes, amended if need be to make them suitable for these powers. Any power to detain someone for up to three hours, to search their person and to use reasonable force in doing so, with accompanying criminal penalties for not co-operating, are tantamount to police powers and they should not be subject to inferior safeguards against improper use. The principle of proper parliamentary scrutiny of the adequacy of the safeguards is therefore vital. With the leave of the House, I shall put some specific points on the drafts to my noble friend, as it is the first parliamentary opportunity to do so, in the hope that he will convincingly deal with the issues that they raise. First, on designation, I gather that detailed criteria for designation of immigration officers are still under consideration and will be ““significantly more detailed””. What parliamentary scrutiny will they receive? If such designations are to be made by a, "““senior manager of at least Assistant Director level””," on behalf of the Secretary of State, is that really senior enough in view of the responsibilities? Why is no mention made of human rights or any other relevant legal standards in the training part of the designation principles? Why are no provisions made for training to cover the dangers of unlawful racial profiling? If the designations are to be maintained by a ““central unit””, exactly who will comprise this unit and at what level of seniority? On the standard operating procedures, the draft is still very general. The detail is apparently to be developed in collaboration with police and other relevant stakeholders, but, again, what are to be the arrangements for scrutiny? Surely scrutiny will have to cover the operational guidance to underpin standard operating procedures and the use-of-force policy. While the draft SOPs make fairly detailed provision for the information to be given to a detainee when the powers to detain or search are used—for example, all the necessary records of any such action to be kept, and the information to be given on how to make a complaint—they still do not measure up to the PACE codes. For example, they do not measure up to Code G, which explains that the power interferes with the right to liberty and that accordingly it should be used only when the necessary objectives cannot be met by other, less intrusive means. By comparison with Code G of the PACE codes, with its detailed guidance on the necessity criteria for arrest, there is no guidance in the SOPs, as far as I can detect, on the criteria to be applied by an immigration officer to decide whether an individual may be liable to arrest by a constable. There is also no equivalent to the stipulation in the PACE codes that the code must be readily available at all police stations for consultation by police officers, other staff, detainees and members of the public. The draft SOPs do not have the same firm, clear guidance as that in Code A of the PACE codes that reasonable force may be used only as a last resort and that co-operation should still be sought, even when the person initially resists search. The draft SOPs provide that searches should be conducted out of public view, except when the search is confined to a superficial examination of outer garments alone. Presumably, that envisages that, out of view, more intimate or strip searches could take place. In an annexe to PACE Code C, there is separate detailed guidance on such searches, but there is no guidance in the draft SOPs. To guard against any apparently disproportionate use of powers against particular sections of the community, there is no equivalent in the draft SOPs to code A of the PACE codes that stop and search powers should be carefully monitored for evidence of their being used on the basis of inappropriate stereotypes or generalisations. We must never lose sight of our primary objective, which is to protect life, liberty and justice and to preserve freedom. This needs rigorous standards. I do not believe that the SOPs as presently envisaged will provide such standards, and I am certain that the devil will prove to be in the detail. That is why scrutiny is so important. I hope that on reflection my noble friend can agree to take this clause away and seek to persuade his colleagues to agree to the amendment. What we need is for the regulation thought to be appropriate to the police to be applied to this new, de facto policing body—and, if I may say so, all the more so to any combined border force as envisaged by the Prime Minister. This is highly relevant to the ongoing strategic battle for hearts and minds. I beg to move.