I will speak also to Amendments 72B to 72G. The amendments take us to the clauses on driving licences. The first amendment, similar to one which I moved in respect of bank accounts on Wednesday, would allow people seeking asylum whose claim has yet to be determined—that is, there has not been a decision or an appeal is pending—to be able to drive. The period for which asylum seekers can wait is often considerably more than six months. I mention that in this context because non-EEA nationals are required to have six months’ leave to apply for a British licence.
I am concerned about the people in question seeing skills gradually tail away, not having the opportunity to integrate, not being able to volunteer—we have just been told that that is important, and indeed it is—to use their skill as a driver in a voluntary capacity.
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On Wednesday the noble Earl said—in the context of bank accounts—that it was not the policy intention to prevent people in this position from opening a bank account, and that the restriction would apply only to people who had exhausted all their appeal rights and are liable to removal. I therefore move this amendment in the hope that he can confirm that the same will apply to driving licences.
Amendments 72B and 72E, which are both about the revocation of a driving licence, essentially make the same point. Amendments 72C and 72F, one relating to Great Britain, the other to Northern Ireland, would create a right of appeal against a decision that the residence requirement had not been met. My concern is that, given the changes to the appeals provisions earlier in the Bill, the current provisions, which extend leave during the period for appeals and during the period they are pending, will not apply. The nomenclature for appeals has changed, and the provisions on which they bite will be repealed. I do not know whether this is an oversight or there is some tidying up here that the Government might feel they need to look at.
Finally, Amendments 72D and 72G remove the prohibition on a judge or sheriff dealing with the matter considering the merits of the refusal of leave. The Home Office’s human rights memorandum says that this measure about licences is partially intended to have a deterrent effect on those who are in the UK unlawfully. The bundle of notes we have been given—I think it is about licences—talks about the dire consequences, which seems a rather inflammatory term in these circumstances. However, perhaps I had better not go there and instead ask the Minister: if the deterrent effect is only a partial reason, what are the other intentions?