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Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right. There will not be a problem that way around, but there could be issues about security regarding alignment, which we will have to develop at the meeting on the 28 February and beyond. The noble Lord is right that there is no reason why data of a lower classification cannot be fed in. I absolutely agree and understand how important alignment of returns will be. None of us wants to increase admin and, wherever possible, our requirements will align with those of other government departments. But they are for a wholly different purpose, so we cannot guarantee that. I know that there was a useful meeting with Universities UK on 15 February, and I thank my noble friend Lady Warwick for her work with that group. We will look to have a further meeting in the next couple of weeks to try to agree our requirements and help out in that area. We understand the concerns about visiting international staff and the requirement for one overarching sponsor. We are working through the policy of who the sponsor will be and we remain very happy to discuss concerns which were highlighted in that question. The Government believe that the fees are an appropriate charge to the users of these services. Rather than relying wholly on the public purse to meet the costs of applications and processes, they should be met partly in this way as well. There is a general agreement that those who benefit most should contribute most to the end-to-end costs of the system. As such, I commend this instrument to the House. On Question, Motion agreed to.