Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules

My Lords, the whole House has on many occasions had cause to be grateful to my noble friend for bringing issues of immigration to the Floor of the House, and today is no exception. He has answered a question for me. I was unable to find the impact assessment. I read the papers hastily, not having expected to be able to take part in this debate, and went into the UKBA website to look for the impact assessment and got nowhere. It was clearly not yet there, but this is probably the season for rather jerky knees. As noble Lords have said, these changes stem from concerns about so-called bogus colleges. I think "bogus" is overused in the context of immigration and asylum. As the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, said, there are clear reputational issues around this. We should indeed crack down on bogus colleges that do not offer proper education, but that is because of the reputation of the UK and because it is simply cheating for colleges that do not educate their students properly to be taking money off them. That is something that I feel extremely strongly about. Perhaps the next Parliament will give us an opportunity to consider licensing such institutions. So many of the changes that we are considering appear to stem from the guidance rather than from the rules. The rules are complex enough. I refer to just one paragraph that is mentioned: paragraph 245ZZB(c)(iv)(1). One can understand how many changes there must have been to get at such a designation of a paragraph, and it is very difficult for anyone to understand the current position. Many of these changes come in the guidance, and I question whether guidance is the appropriate vehicle for some of this. My noble friend is drawing the House’s attention to changes in the Immigration Rules, but the guidance is a step lower in that we cannot even challenge it through the legislative process. I see from the letter from the UK Council for International Student Affairs that was published in the Merits Committee report that, since the Immigration Rules for tier 4 were first published, just less than 12 months ago—the letter was sent, I think, last month—there have been six versions of the tier 4 policy guidance. That is bad in itself, and it is bad that guidance has assumed such significance in the decisions that are taken in this area and in the futures of the people who are affected by them. The council says that the scheme is becoming quite unworkable because of the number of changes and because the information is published in so many different places and in many cases says different things. The council goes on to say—this worries me very much: ""Where there is a discrepancy between the Immigration Rules and some other document or source of information, we cannot assume that the Immigration Rules will be applied and have to ask on every occasion which version reflects the real policy intention. As the policy guidance is changed so often, there appears to be little legal certainty on which students and advisers can rely"." I was also struck by the level of English that is to be attained. Again, the Merits Committee cites in evidence a letter that states that, ""it is absurd to require people who wish to come to learn the language already to be competent in it, which is the effect of this proposal"." We have arrived in Alice in Wonderland. The effect on students and their families of the restrictions on the hours of work has been mentioned. The letter from the UK Council for International Student Affairs to the Merits Committee states: ""It is not clear why the Government wishes to disrupt so severely the family life of students, particularly when family support in a new country can be so helpful in ensuring that students successfully complete their studies"." In short, there are a lot of questions, which I do not need to repeat. The biggest question with which I am left is why the Government have chosen to take what clearly appears, to all the speakers in the debate, to be such a perverse course without having provided material on which there could have been a proper debate. We are having a debate thanks to my noble friend, although we are having it at the 11th hour—indeed the 24th—but it is right at least that we put on record our concerns.