My Lords, this amendment has the effect of empowering the official examining a person embarking in the UK to establish what the basis of the embarking person’s entry to the UK was and the particulars of his visa if applicable. It also allows the official to establish whether the person’s immigration status changed during his stay in the UK.
The reasons for embarkation checks are to prevent offenders from fleeing abroad to escape justice and to identify those who were given limited leave to remain but failed to depart by the expiry of their leave. These reasons are wholly justifiable and we do not in any way question or dispute the necessity of embarkation checks; in fact we have called for embarkation checks as a means to verify that people leave the country when they are supposed to. We are already checking 90% of air passengers and 75% of all those leaving the country, and I am sure that my noble friend the Minister will be able to confirm that we are on course to reach 100% by some time next year. If he can be more precise about the date, I am sure your Lordships would like to have that information.
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My noble friend has explained why we think it would be useful to record the particular additional information called for in this amendment. Bearing in mind the need to minimise the disruption to the movement of departing passengers, I believe that my noble friend is right in assuming that the particulars are readily available and that the information could be picked up from a routine passport scan, which would not require any other interaction between the passenger and the official.
The Home Office factsheet on embarkation checks says that the designated officials who will carry out the checks will be those working for carriers and port operators who are,
“already involved in outbound passenger processes”.
Will my noble friend the Minister confirm that, in general, all that will be involved is the scan of the passport and that only when this flags up a signal—for example, that the holder is wanted for a criminal offence or that he has overstayed his permitted leave to remain—would any further action by the official be required? I would be grateful if my noble friend could confirm my understanding of the position.