Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

Oh, she’s back, my Lords. I had not spotted her walk in, but I missed her contribution this evening very much. I am so glad that she is back and we look forward to hearing her speak when the Bill goes into Committee. I think that she will make many constructive contributions. The noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote, said how unfair it was to ask potential citizens to do more for their country than actual citizens. Many noble Lords said how hard it will be to check on what exactly is a voluntary activity. I hope that the Government will dwell on that; we do not want to have a whole new bureaucratic system dealing with voluntary activities when, by their very nature, those activities should be voluntary. Although there were some good concepts in the citizenship provisions, we will be asking many questions about exactly how they will work and whether they are proportionate. My noble friend Lord Smith of Clifton made a forensic examination of the common travel area, covered in Clause 46. He laid out all our concerns, which were echoed by the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran. Those provisions will bear quite a lot of examination. Similarly, my noble friend Lord Wallace of Saltaire and the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, had a number of reservations about Clause 47, which we shall be looking at carefully, and my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford explained very well our concerns about Clause 50 on judicial review. The part dealing with the welfare of children looks very attractive, and we are glad that a move is being made in the right direction, but there are a lot of concerns here, some of which have been laid out in a briefing note from the Refugee Children’s Consortium. It questions whether any discrimination is reasonable when it comes to children. It contends that under the UN convention children should be treated in a way that exceeds that proposed by the Bill. That worry was compounded when we read the note from the noble Lord, Lord Brett. It is helpful in spelling out some of the detail in the Bill, and it says that the guidance will follow as much as possible the statutory guidance on making arrangements under Section 11 of the Children Act 2004. We will examine when that will not be possible. There is a very basic concern, as the Bill talks about children within the UK. We will want to know what constitutes being not within the UK. Does being at an airport, for example, count as the UK? Does a detention centre count as within the UK? There are a number of concerns. Given the amount of energy and good will that there is in the House to improve the situation, we feel that big improvements can be made—there will be big amendments that would improve this Bill in a really substantial way. From these Benches, we will work with others here who clearly share our views, as we share theirs, to seek to shift the Bill from a small, bureaucratic Bill to something considerably more suited to addressing the really critical issues faced by the UK and its potential citizens.