Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2008

The noble Lord says that they are almost monthly. We understand the reasoning behind what I call the Robin Hood system of charging more for those who can afford the cost and less for those who cannot. However, I am a little surprised at the rapid change as regards exemptions for workers who are nationals of states covered either by the Council of Europe Social Charter or the Council of Europe revised Social Charter. These exemptions were introduced barely a year ago. I should be grateful if the Minister would explain why they are suddenly being changed. Has the number of applications in that time been so great that a charge is seen as a deterrent? The Minister said that exemptions should not apply as regards a treaty that we have not ratified. However, that situation applied last year, so why introduce a change this year? It is quite bouleversé. Will any more categories be introduced before the total number of fee categories is completed? These regulations come through fairly regularly and there are all sorts of tiers and parts of tiers. It would be helpful to be told when they will be fully completed. The Explanatory Notes suggest that consolidation of the current regulations and fee charges will take place as part of the annual review in 2009 and 2010. However, the current fee charges may not be the end of the story. It would be helpful to be told whether we are nearly at the end of this process or whether we are still in the middle of it, as well as whether the consolidation will lay out the full fee regime or whether we will still be messing around with one or two categories every few months. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, said in an aside that this was likely to occur monthly rather than annually, so we shall take it as likely to occur monthly. I have nothing more to offer on these regulations. They are clearly part and parcel of the new way of limiting immigration into this country and rationalising the charges that we make, but we need answers to the three questions that I asked.