UK Borders Bill

moved Amendment No. 32: 32: Clause 34, page 19, line 17, leave out ““at a time chosen by the Secretary of State”” and insert ““as soon as possible following commencement of the person’s period of imprisonment and in any event within three months of that date”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, in Grand Committee I drew attention to the dangers of prolonged post-sentence immigration detention, which is potentially in breach of the right to liberty as laid down in Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. My concern, reflecting that of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, is that a number of foreign nationals have been held in prison and immigration removal centres at taxpayers’ not inconsiderable expense for periods of time far past their sentence expiry date, awaiting a decision on whether they will be deported. In Grand Committee my noble friend said that he was, "““entirely at one with the intention behind the amendment””.—[Official Report, 23/7/07; col. GC 147.]" I hope that my noble friend will forgive me for putting it this way, but he then went on with his characteristic Home Office brief, rationalising why the amendment was itself unacceptable. In responding to that debate, I challenged my noble friend: if he really agreed with the intention of the amendment, he should use all the expertise of the Home Office at his disposal to find a better formula for fulfilling it than the amendment I had proposed. By resubmitting my proposal, I am giving my noble friend the opportunity to meet that challenge. To say that the numbers are small is never a satisfactory position. A human rights abuse can be a 100 per cent injustice for the individual concerned. That is obviously not acceptable, and a 100 per cent injustice for one person can be fomented into a useful political tool by extremist manipulators of the impressionable. I beg to move.