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Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Mark Fisher). He speaks with intelligence and compassion. His speech was an excellent model of the reasoned and level approach that is needed in contributions on such a subject and I commend him for it. Here we are again. It is another Tuesday and another Home Office Bill. It seems in this brave new Labour world that the legislative output of a Department is inversely proportionate to its effectiveness. Taken on that measure, I suspect that the Prime Minister’s reported concerns at the weekend about the Home Office may have some foundation in fact. The Bill is a mixed bag: a mix of the good, the bad and the indifferent. Some parts of it—the restriction on the right to appeal, for example—are plain wrongheaded and contradict other parts of Government policy, such as the encouragement of universities to recruit students from overseas. Other parts could be made to work with appropriate safeguards in place. They include the further rights of the Home Office and the police to demand information about passengers on ships and aircraft before they have reached the United Kingdom, and to share information between them and the Revenue and Customs. A few measures are broadly to be welcomed and we can support the Government on them—I think in particular of the measures to deal with those who employ people working illegally. However, they must not be targeted at the employees; their focus must be tackling the worst and most exploitative employers. The right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) made an interesting speech, but I was surprised that initially he was so unambiguous in his support for the Government. Having listened carefully to the whole speech, I am no better informed as to why the official Opposition have given their unambiguous support to the Government, but perhaps in the course of today’s debate or in Committee that will become clearer. As currently drafted, the Bill proposes to remove all rights of appeal against refusal to vary leave to remain except where previous leave was granted to a refugee. Such appeals could be argued only on the basis that someone was a refugee and that the United Kingdom’s obligations under the UN convention on refugees had been breached, not on any other family, compassionate or human rights grounds. The Bill gives the Secretary of State absolute discretion to restore rights in circumstances to be specified by order—or not, as he sees fit. I am afraid that there is little in the current standard of decision making to justify that change. Even if the current decisions were all flawless, the removal of any check by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal would lead to deteriorating decision making. The only fair method is to allow people to challenge adverse decisions before the AIT, failing which there will inevitably be increased resort to judicial review, along with the accompanying costs and hassle. The Bill will remove rights of appeal against refusal of entry clearance abroad from everyone, except people who are applying to visit specified family members or who are applying as defendants of specified individuals. That means that students, workers, working holidaymakers and ministers of religion would not be able to appeal. I am afraid that I simply do not see the justification for that. Where are the abuses in those cases and what mischief are the Government seeking to cure? Fiona Lindsley, the independent monitor of entry clearance refusals without the right of appeal, said in her report of February 2005 that"““extrapolating from my file samples in 2002 and 2003 I calculate that 28,000 applicants have been wrongly denied rights of appeal in these two years””." That figure is quite appalling.