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UK Borders Bill

I beg to move, that this House agrees with the Lords in the said amendment. In Committee, we had a useful and at times passionate debate about the need for the Border and Immigration Agency to step up to its responsibilities to keep children safe from harm, and this is not an unrelated area. It is increasingly important to ensure that the identity of children in the immigration system is well understood and locks down. That is why we propose to issue biometric immigration documents to those people under 18 in the immigration system . As the House will know, the ambition in the policy is for all foreign nationals to be compelled to have such a card in time. With any system of compulsion, however, there is the unfortunate necessity of a sanction for non-compliance. It is not a reasonable proposition to introduce the sanctions that we have debated in order to take action against children, and we therefore propose a designated adult as the alternative. We will seek to make the adult aware of that responsibility, and there is, of course, the comfort that if a civil penalty is imposed, the adult can object or, indeed, appeal. The amendment seeks to close a gap in the operation of the civil penalty regime.