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Asylum Seekers

I am delighted to tell my hon. Friend that only 10 days ago, I met the new case owners of all current asylum cases in the Border and Immigration Agency. Each case owner is assigned a few thousand cases to handle with their team, and will own each case from beginning to end. Each case in his constituency and my own, for example, will have somebody to take it through the whole assessment process. If the claim fails, that person will deal with deportation or voluntary return; if it is successful, they will take the applicant through to support for remaining in the community, ensure that they are established and so on. That will make a marked change. Like my hon. Friend, I have been frustrated as a constituency MP by the feeling that cases are often passed to completely different individuals, without any continuity. The change, which has been driven through by my hon. Friend the Minister for Borders and Immigration, arose from that frustration. I think that we will begin to see a change. I am happy to say that the cases were allocated last week, a week ahead of time, so the changes should come through our case loads and those of other hon. Members in the new year. I hope that that will make a difference to the individuals concerned, and we will get the continuity that my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) mentioned. In the time available, it is best that I concentrate on the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington raised about the so-called dossier of 200 allegations of abuse printed in The Independent on 5 October. The chief executive of the Border and Immigration has requested the dossier from The Independent. We do not have it yet, but I am pleased to say that we have made some progress—we were told in early November that it would take about two months to prepare the dossier before it could be provided to the BIA. That is helpful. It is impossible without the full facts to investigate complaints and take the disciplinary action necessary in cases of abuse of position. I should also point out in relation to police complaints that although 58 allegations were made during the last 14 months that illegal or disproportionate force had been used during removal, the police found that none of those instances had a case to answer, on the basis that the use of force was both legal and proportionate. The BIA and private sector investigations have identified only one case of non-criminal lapses in escort behaviour resulting in minor disciplinary action in the past 14 months. We must get the issue in proportion. It is a challenging task, but we need evidence to take action against people who might be abusing the system. With the dossier of information, we will look into the matter in more detail. It is a shame that it has taken so long. As my hon. Friend rightly said, if we do not have the information to act quickly, things are much more difficult. Witnesses may be dispersed, or other individuals concerned may not consent to make information available. We must ensure that we have a robust system while recognising the challenges facing us. We are a little disappointed by the failure to produce the dossier at the point of publication. Having been a journalist, I would think that if something might lead to action, it is preferable to print it when it is possible for that information to get results, rather than having to delay for a total of three months from publication, or a quarter of a year, before we can investigate the matter. That is rather a long time. We cannot discipline people without evidence. We look forward to the evidence, and we will act robustly and swiftly when we have cause to do so. I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. As ever, she has highlighted passionately and robustly the concerns shared by many Members. Importantly, she calls the Government to account for actions taken by us or agencies on our behalf. She is right to do so. I look forward to continuing to work with her. I hope that I can continue to provide her with reassurance in the information that I have promised. She is welcome at any point to visit a detention and removal centre, or indeed the Kent project, if she wishes. Question put and agreed to.