UK Borders Bill

My Lords, exception 2 in Clause 33(3) means that foreign criminals aged under 18 when convicted will be exempt from automatic deportation. Amendment No. 31 would alter this exception to mean that those aged under 18 at the time of the offence would be exempt. This is not the first time the amendment has been tabled. It has been debated at length both in this House and in another place. In those debates both my honourable friend the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration and I have put forward the Government’s case for resisting the amendment. We explained that the provisions have been designed to ensure that it is as clear as possible whether they apply to foreign nationals. They achieve this as drafted because it will always be clear on which date a person has been convicted. It will, however, not always be clear when the offence took place, such as in sexual abuse cases or crimes that have taken place over an extended period, such as drug dealing. In the debate in Grand Committee on 23 July, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, suggested an alternative approach. This was that in cases where it is unclear when an offence has taken place, the latest possible date should be the relevant one for deciding whether the exception should apply. As he said, I agreed to look at this suggestion more closely over the Summer Recess. Having done so, I agree that in practice this suggestion would not reduce the certainty around whether a foreign criminal qualifies for automatic deportation. However, I am not convinced that it would be the right approach to take in this instance. The primary purpose of these provisions is to protect the public from harm. To do that they must be robust enough to send out a message that criminal behaviour is simply not acceptable. Given the prevalence of youth and gang-related crime in our communities, I do not feel it would be appropriate to exclude from these provisions youths who turn 18 between the commission of an offence and their trial. The noble Lord will be aware that there is no lower age limit for deportation under the Secretary of State’s powers in the existing legal framework in the Immigration Act 1971, although this limit is 17 years for court recommendations. However, in recognition of the potential vulnerability of children and young people, we do not as a matter of policy deport individuals under the age of 16 in their own right. Individuals between the ages of 16 and 18 will only be deported where there are adequate reception arrangements in place in the country of origin. So young people will be no worse off under the new provisions than they are now. Under the current system, a young person who turns 18 between offence and conviction will be considered for deportation if they meet the threshold. If they are still under 18 at the point where deportation is in prospect, consideration will be given to the adequacy of reception arrangements. Under the proposed cut-off point in this clause, the individual will be an adult by the time deportation is in prospect. The intention behind the noble Lord’s amendment is clearly to ensure that someone is not punished as an adult for something he did as a child. It is the job of the criminal courts to make any appropriate allowances for age when passing sentence. Deportation is an immigration consequence of criminality and does not reflect the punitive or rehabilitative elements of a criminal sentence. I accept that the immigration consequence may nevertheless be serious, which is why we have put in place appropriate safeguards. My noble friend Lord Judd stated that possession of cannabis is on the Section 72 list of offences—that is, if a person is imprisoned for possessing cannabis, automatic deportation will apply. That is not the case. Possession of class C drugs is not included on the Section 72 list. My noble friend also made a point about the provisions on automatic deportation being inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The provisions of the convention, which he has referred to, concern children in the criminal justice system. The automatic deportation provisions concern the maintenance of immigration control, particularly the public interest in deporting those who commit criminal offences. We are satisfied that the provisions are consistent with UNCRC. For those reasons and those set out in our response, this amendment does not find favour with us.