My Lords, I thank noble Lords for some pretty sensible follow-up questions. The first question, about why we need the power, is absolutely reasonable. There are currently limited powers to apply penalties to applications for entry clearance under existing legislation. It might be possible to apply extra checks if a certain nationality is considered to pose an immigration risk that could lead to a slowing down of visa processing. However, that is as far as penalties can reasonably go under current powers.
The Secretary of State must exercise her powers consistently with the Immigration Acts. Neither the Immigration Act 1971 nor the Immigration Rules allows the Secretary of State to adopt measures such as additional charges or suspending visas in order to apply pressure on a foreign Government. By their nature, these powers mean that the penalties can be applied in a blanket way to a nationality. It is correct that the Secretary of State has express statutory authority if she is to take these significant steps.
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On parliamentary scrutiny, although the measures are intended to function as a stand-alone measure or in conjunction with a wider package of government measures, they are not directly comparable to the powers in SAMLA—the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act. The powers in that Act allow for much broader conditions of use, ranging from as broad as furthering
“a foreign policy objective of the government of the United Kingdom”.
The new powers in the Nationality and Borders Bill are more tightly defined and relate only to the most serious and concerning international events: war or breaches of international humanitarian law.
In addition, the powers in the sanctions Act are both broad and deep. They allow for direct targeting of named individuals and freezing of their assets but also for sweeping powers to implement in multiple sectors of the domestic economy and the economy overseas. The visa penalty powers in the Nationality and Borders Bill are much more limited, affecting only the granting of visas. It would be disproportionate to apply a similar procedure to the sanctions Act to these more limited powers and could undermine their use where time is of the essence.
On broader use of the power, the visa penalties provisions explicitly set out a narrowly drafted set of conditions in the legislation under which these powers can be considered. They do not concern trivial matters. These powers will be able to be used only where the actions of a state give or are likely to give rise to a threat to international peace and security, results or is likely to result in armed conflict, or gives or is likely to give rise to a breach of international humanitarian law. Any action will be subject to cross-government agreement, which will take into account the UK’s wider bilateral interests with the country in question.
On the question from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford, many of the sanctions that the Government are imposing on Russia do not target specific individuals: for example, action against financial institutions. However, the aggregate impact on the
Russian state and the ending of normal relations applies pressure to and imposes costs on the Putin regime in response to its abhorrent war in Ukraine. It cannot be business as usual, but I totally accept the right reverend Prelate’s point about the impact on ordinary people.
On the question of the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, about the VAC, I understand that we are setting up a VAC in Lille. I think I went through the numbers of refugees earlier today—was it earlier today? Yes, it was. Obviously, that number has gone from 50 to over 500 in 24 hours and we expect an uptick in that number. I commend what Ireland has done, but I expect us in very short order to have a streamlined and up-and-running system which, I hope, should be providing similar sorts of numbers by the end of the week. It is not a competition, but I expect the system to be running a lot more smoothly. I beg to move.