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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

I am sorry that we should end this evening on a disappointing note. There is nothing personal in this; the noble Lord, Lord West, and I have known each other for long enough to realise that that would not apply. When I was a member of the Independent Asylum Commission, we summed up the attitudes of the Home Office and the UKBA to all the points that were being put to them as a culture of disbelief. What worries me about the brief that the noble Lord read out was that it was the culture of disbelief writ large. I was amazed that it should be suggested that people reported to the police that people had gone missing. Who had reported them to the police? Which people knew that they had gone missing? I am incredulous. The Minister mentioned two things: that various things were being examined and that guidance was being produced. In view of the questions raised by noble Lords all around the Committee throughout our discussions today and on earlier parts of the Bill, I do not think that it would be responsible of us to let this part of the Bill go without further question. I hope, therefore, that to guide our discussions on Report, the Minister can share with us the guidance and the policy which they propose to put out so that we can subject it to the same sort of examination that we have put the Bill through, in the hope that we make it workable on behalf of the people whom we are trying to look after. With the request that we should be provided with that information before Report stage, when I promise we will bring this matter back, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 113 withdrawn. Amendments 114 to 116 not moved. Clause 51 agreed.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

708 c836 

Session

2008-09

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber
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