Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, this has been a long and interesting debate, and it is a privilege to speak at the end of it. It should come as no surprise to the Minister that we have had such a wide-ranging debate, for noble Lords who have spoken today bring impressive expertise to bear on the matter. If, as the Minister has promised us, we can look for a simplification Bill towards the end of this Session, I suggest that this Bill represents the darkness before the dawn. As noble Lords have pointed out, the Bill is a curious collection of measures bundled up together. Like my noble friend Lady Hanham, I am not sure whether I quite understand the Government’s claims that these provisions represent the most pressing and urgent of all the matters which they could have put into such a Bill. That seems to be the explanation for mixing Immigration Rules with citizenship provisions, and student visas with the common travel area. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith—I am sorry that we were not able to be in time before the departure of his plane—said, in connection with citizenship, that this was piecemeal legislation. I suggest to your Lordships that this applies to the whole of the Bill. My noble friend Lady Hanham and other noble Lords have already puzzled over Part 1, which transfers powers from here to there, delegates from there to here and falls short of anything satisfactory. That is all the more reason to echo my noble friend’s plea for training, which was taken up by the noble Lords, Lord Kirkwood and Lord Hylton, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howe. I suggest that the very inadequacy of the scope of the Bill has encouraged some of your Lordships to make some excellent points on the whole subject of immigration, which in some cases were not strictly within the scope of the Bill. It has a rushed feeling to it, as if the powers in the Home Office had simply put together a few provisions to satisfy the Government’s constant need to legislate. I am not the first to remark that the Bill that we are debating today is but a shadow of the mammoth draft Bill that was published last year. Very many provisions from that draft Bill appear to have been pushed into the long grass. Presumably, they were not urgent enough to merit inclusion in this Bill. However, I cannot say that I am dismayed to see the back of the provision at Clause 30 in the draft Bill which would have landed British citizens in prison if they failed to tell the Secretary of State that they had stayed in a hotel. We on these Benches consider that Part 4 of the draft Bill, which contained enhanced powers to issue expulsion orders, and the power to remove foreign criminals from within our borders, is a pressing area. One of the most egregious failures of this Government’s immigration policy, so far as they have one, has been their apparent inability to deal with people who should not be here. In the face of this Government’s failure to enforce their own laws, we must look at the possibility that new powers are necessary to expel with efficiency and propriety individuals who have been found to have no legitimate reasons to remain in the United Kingdom. I was most interested to hear my noble friend Lord Marlesford on the subject of passports. I hope that the Minister will give careful consideration to the many points he made on that issue, one of which is worth repeating. Why do the Government continue to proceed with their ID cards legislation when the passport control mechanism is in such a mess? I also pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Patten, who made an eloquent case for the free movement of people throughout the world, which must, of course, be our ultimate aim. I should be most interested to hear why the Minister did not think that expulsion orders were important enough to merit inclusion in the Bill, but should wait for a later immigration Bill, if it comes at all. I can reassure the noble Lord that we will look closely at the merits of such orders and we may very well provide your Lordships’ House with the opportunity to debate them fully at a later stage. One category of persons whom the Government have evidently decided to get tough on is students. Clause 47 places new restrictions or conditions on temporary leave to study. Many noble Lords have spoken about that. As to quite why this is an urgent matter I look forward to hearing from the Minister. Without knowing what those conditions are, we must wait for answers from the Government. Will this mean that a student has to reapply for a visa, with all the costs and inevitable time that will have to be allowed for such a procedure to take place? What will become of students whose course lasts longer than their visas? In the midst of end-of-year exams and other pressures, it would be cruel indeed if they were also expected to cope with an expensive, unresponsive and tardy reapplication process. What assurances can the Minister give us on that point? I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, who made as good a case as he could for the Government on this. I realise that there is a real problem with some students, who simply drop out of studies and disappear from view, but, equally, many more overseas students are a great asset to the educational fabric of this country, and their international connections play a vital role in many ways to the benefit of this country. We will look closely at these provisions to make sure that legitimate students are not disadvantaged. I am even less ambiguous about the abolition of the common travel area. We on these Benches are opposed to Clause 46. This point has been made very well by my noble friend Lord Glentoran. As your Lordships will be aware, he speaks for the Opposition on Northern Ireland. Therefore, I shall not repeat what he said, except to say that we would like the Government, as Governments of both parties have done for nearly a century, to co-operate with the Irish Government to enhance the external security of both countries, which will allow free travel across and around all the British Isles, a freedom which has brought us countless benefits—in other words, to create, in effect, a mini-Schengen area. I welcome Clause 51, which extends to the immigration and asylum sphere a duty to protect the welfare of children. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, was eloquent on this issue, and I am grateful for his generous remarks about my party’s contribution. This builds on the hard work that my noble friends on these Benches and my honourable friends in another place have done in this area. The clause as drafted in the Bill owes much to the efforts of my noble friend Lady Morris of Bolton, whose amendment to the then Children and Young Persons Bill finally convinced the Government to concede the point. I thank the Minister for introducing the clause so graciously. Indeed, I was beginning to think that the Bill was justified for the children’s clause alone, but that supposition was punctured by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howe. It is clear to me that we shall need further measures on this point, either in separate legislation or in the simplification Bill. I have gone quickly through the various points of the Bill. I assure the Minister that we will devote our time carefully to scrutinising it fully at the next stages; I am sure that he would expect nothing else. We do not particularly object to some provisions and we welcome others. However, there are serious deficiencies in this piece of legislation, both what is there and what is not. I am sure that the Minister will welcome the contribution of all noble Lords who have participated in this debate, as our aim, as always, is to help the Government to improve legislation. I must just add that the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, has drawn attention to the alleged record of my party on immigration. Do I detect a diversionary tactic? I invite him to await our contribution to this Bill as it passes through your Lordships’ House in its later stages. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.