My Lords, this is the fourth occasion in recent weeks that the House has debated the cumulative negative impact that the Government’s immigration policy is already having, and is set in future to have, on the higher education sector, one of Britain’s most buoyant and valuable assets. Amendment 23 is designed to avoid that negative impact.
First, I will say a word or two about detail. I and my co-sponsors have not moved, as we did at the Committee stage, to exempt undergraduates and postgraduates from the streamlined appeals procedure. We listened to the arguments advanced by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, in Committee and concluded that the arguments for and against the new procedures were sufficiently well balanced, so far as students were concerned, to justify reluctant acceptance. We have also removed from the scope of the carve-out
proposed in our current amendment the issues of bank accounts and driving licences to meet the points raised in Committee by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach.
I shall say a word now—I hope a final word—about the ways statistics on migrants are compiled in this country and then submitted to the UN, an issue highlighted again this week by the publication of the extremely worrying figures from the Higher Education Funding Council for England which demonstrated, yet again, that the optimism expressed by the Minister in previous debates was a bit wide of the mark. As the noble Lord said in his very welcome letter of 24 February, these statistics are already, since last year, disaggregated so that students can be distinguished from other migrants, even though the net migration figures are re-aggregated for the purposes of submission to the UN. However, we are not talking about the way in which the Office for National Statistics compiles statistics. We are talking about the public policy implications in our immigration policy for this category, which is already recognised, as I have said, as being distinct. On that, we are proposing an approach which has been vigorously promoted for several years by six Select Committees of both Houses. I very much welcome what the report of the noble Lord, Lord Howell Guildford, on UK soft power had to say, which was identical to what was said by the other five committees which had already reported. This view has been supported by members of all three main parties and of none: quite simply, that we should remove full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students from the public policy impact of the UK’s immigration policy. That is what our main competitors—the US, Canada and Australia—are already doing. Doing that in the context of the Bill, as my noble and learned friend Lord Woolf made clear in the Committee stage debate, would send the most powerful message possible around the world that we want our higher education sector to be open to all who are qualified to benefit from it, without any new obstacles or disincentives being put in their way.
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In moving the amendment, it would be less than fair if I were to fail to recognise and to welcome the substantial shifts in the provisions on student accommodation which the Minister has introduced in the amendments he tabled last weekend, which are grouped on the Marshalled List together with this amendment. He wrote in detail about these proposals to a number of Members—in his letter of 27 March to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, and in his letter of 1 April to the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. His key phrase was:
“Where a landlord has proof that a tenant is a genuine student, we can allow landlords to rely on the checks that have already been performed”.
The letter continued:
“Private landlords do not have to conduct immigration status checks when the tenant is nominated by an educational institution”.
He has thus widened considerably the previous exemptions which covered private halls of residence, including houses and flats. His amendments sound more and more like a carve-out for the student accommodation aspects of the Bill and, as such, I welcome them.
When the Minister comes to contribute to the debate, however, I would like it if he could address three rather important points. First, can he confirm that these exemptions apply to all students: undergraduates, postgraduates and those studying for doctorates? Secondly, can he confirm that if an overseas student is furnished by a higher education institution with a certificate or nomination stating that he has a valid student visa and has been admitted to a course at the institution, then that will exempt the landlord from making checks and from any other provisions of the Bill with respect to student accommodation? Thirdly, I confess that I still find the use of the word “nominated” in Amendment 29 a trifle esoteric. I know that the noble Lord is a great supporter of plain English, so I hope that in his reply he will say in plain English that this in no sense involves higher education institutions in the contractual arrangements between the landlord and the student.
I am a bit less joyful about the NHS surcharge on overseas students. I cannot welcome anything there because the Government have not tabled any amendments in respect of them. It has been argued that the surcharge is modest and entirely fair, and it is true that it is lower than the health insurance charges that an overseas student would pay in the United States. However, that insurance charge in the United States is not imposed by the state and does not discriminate between US and overseas students. A US student would also have to pay for health insurance to cover their health charges while they are at university. Our proposed surcharge does both those things. It is imposed by the state and it discriminates between overseas students and domestic and EU students.
Moreover, there are potential anomalies. A student who came here as an undergraduate and progressed through a postgraduate degree, perhaps to a doctoral course—a not unusual progression—could end up paying more in surcharges for longer than a genuine economic migrant who came here to take a job and was given leave to remain. Does that make sense? Is it fair? Should there not be some kind of cut-off for a student on that kind of progression? This issue was discussed in detail and with great courtesy by the Minister at a meeting on 27 March. He pointed out that issues such as this could well be considered when the secondary legislation to give effect to the provisions of this Bill was being drawn up. I should be grateful if he could confirm that undertaking now.
The answers to my three questions on the accommodation issue will certainly influence my decision and the decision of the other co-sponsors of the amendment on whether to test the opinion of the House on it. I look forward with eager anticipation to the Minister’s response. I beg to move.