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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am slightly surprised by those last comments because I thought that the concerns of noble Lords in Committee was that when considering continuous employment we should not be so rigid as to reject someone whose unemployment came from a situation beyond their control for a relatively short period. The noble Lord raised the question of how the condition interacts with the employment requirements under the points-based system. I recognise that migrants on work routes will have further conditions attached to their leave, such as not having recourse to public funds. Migrants granted leave under tier 2 may have that leave curtailed if they are out of employment for more than 60 days. I do not think that that makes the continuous employment requirement unnecessary. It is wholly consistent with, and underlines, the Government’s clear policy that migrants are here to work and to be economically active. By having a discretion, we can apply a human face, which we are often accused of not applying when coming up against rules and hard cases. I had hoped that what I was saying about continuous employment not being with the same employer would be more encouraging to the noble Lord than it has been.