My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 193 in my name, and I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Green of Deddington, and my noble friend Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts for their support. Indeed, I should say that I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Green, more broadly, as he has been kind enough to speak more brilliantly than I could have done to amendments in my name during my lonely period of Covid isolation. I am also grateful for the good wishes of others in my absence.
Noble Lords will know of the importance that I attach to numbers and to reporting in all Bills that we scrutinise in this House. My Amendment 193 would require the Secretary of State to ensure that information is regularly published on immigration, including data on both asylum and other immigration—just to clarify to the noble Lord, Lord Paddick—and also weekly figures on those entering the UK across the English Channel. I note that I might have drafted that more generously to include other sea routes used by small boats bringing migrants to the UK, as the dreadful people smugglers shift to any viable sea route.
I have tabled the amendment for two reasons. First, many years ago when I was the home affairs adviser in the Downing Street Policy Unit, I discovered just how difficult it was to get up-to-date figures out of Croydon. The International Passenger Survey improved things, but I believe that it is no longer routinely completed at UK points of entry. I need to understand from my noble friend the Minister what data the department is now collecting on immigration and asylum, how often this is published and how up to date it is when it is published. Since Brexit, the system has changed. It makes it doubly important to have proper data, and to have it regularly—I think there is agreement across the Committee on that. I worry that that is now lacking. This matters, whatever your position on immigration. It is vital to have adequate provision of housing, schooling and other aspects of the care and employment of migrants. We also need to know how the population is growing or steadying.
Secondly, there have been reports in the media that the regular daily or weekly count of migrants crossing the channel might be discontinued, possibly as part of a move to give the Royal Navy control of enforcement. I have no issue with the latter—my son is in the Navy Reserve and the British Navy warms our hearts. However, I cannot accept this needless reduction in transparency.
It is too late to argue about what has been said by the previous speaker, but I have sympathy with some of the amendments in this group, in so far as they
relate to the provision of proper data. Everyone—from the Secretary of State herself to hard-working Members of this House—needs to have reliable and regular facts. Brexit is an enormous change and we need to be sure that the flow of migrants—some welcome, some less so—is turning out as anticipated.