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Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

Indeed, but because noble Lords had raised the question of the EU, it was pertinent to describe how even within the EU serious debates and dialogues are occurring to ensure that the sharing of information is done effectively. Of course the noble Lord is right, and I was going on to say that in the Bill we have sought to specify that the foreign law enforcement agencies need to have similar functions to a UK police force or the Serious Organised Crime Agency. With the engagement of both the Human Rights Act in the way that I have described and data protection we have the creation of a regime that should give the noble Lord a greater sense of security. We are very mindful that the sharing of information needs to be done properly and that those with whom we share information need to be operating on the same basis as us, otherwise there are real dangers in the sharing of information, as the noble Lord will recognise. The examples have been given of Zimbabwe and Burma; I am not suggesting that we will be sharing much information with them in the foreseeable future. Even with regimes with which we have a great deal in common, it is important to make sure that the information will be used effectively and properly. The Human Rights Act and data protection are important in that. There is no question that we agree completely with the noble Lord in how we will seek to operate the system; we hope that he will recognise that. I will come back to him on data protection when I have had a chance to discuss it with officials in greater detail. I will now go back to the beginning, as it were, and deal with fingerprinting of asylum seekers.