UK Borders Bill

My Lords, the right reverend Prelate has a point when he says that the conditions of a country of origin should come into considerations of the welfare of the child. When the noble Baroness was moving her amendment, she was very assiduous in underlining the fact that we are talking about the way that the Borders and Immigration Agency carry out its duties and not the primary functions it has to discharge in pursuance of the Immigration Act. We should maintain that distinction in our minds. As the right reverend Prelate correctly feared, it is this point which makes the Government reluctant to accept the wording of the amendment. They will say that if this is on the statute book, people will not be able to deport children and that they would have to cope with massive judicial reviews immediately prior to the exercise of these functions. I prefer the interpretation of the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, of the amendment; namely, that it applies to the way in which the BIA discharges its duties and not those concerning its primary statutory functions as safeguarding the immigration control of this country. If we make that distinction there will be no problem, but if we fail to separate the two things in our minds and we allow the Minister to claim that we are enabling a coach-and-horses approach to JR, we will never be able to persuade the Government to accept it. I wish to emphasise one other point. I agree with the noble Baroness about bringing in the contracted-out functions under subsection (1)(b) of the amendment. An increasing number of duties placed on the BIA are contracted out to private organisations. It is important that they should be constrained by the same rules as those who exercise these functions on behalf of the BIA. Detention centres are all managed by independent companies—for example, Yarl’s Wood, Tinsley House and Harmondsworth. I think that every one is managed for the BIA and not by the BIA. Therefore, it is essential that this clause should apply to them as it does to the BIA. Finally, the contracted-out functions also are not in the code of practice. I am afraid I have to say that this document is a great disappointment. I am not altogether surprised that the Government made it available to us only at 3.14 pm. They presumably did not really want anyone to pick holes in it during these proceedings. If this is what the final document is to be like, it is an enormous disappointment and Clause 21 will be an equal disappointment to your Lordships if it is found to be a false prospectus. I hope that that is not the case and that this draft can be considerably improved before we see the final version.