---

Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments 1 to 8. We have listened to the debate, both here and in the other place, and have amended the Bill in order to assure the House on some of the key areas of disagreement. I am also assured that the Bill is better for this. Before I introduce group 1, which relates to Part 1 of the Bill, I would like to echo the theme of consensus that has accompanied the Bill both in this House and in the other place. The Government have put on the face of the Bill transitional arrangements on earned citizenship, as requested by this House. They have also brought forward amendments on nationality law and trafficking, having sought agreements with the opposition parties, and proposed a new clause on judicial review in order to meet the concerns expressed in this House. There has been one issue—the common travel area—on which we have not been able to gain the House’s consensus, which is unfortunate against a background of great agreement both here and in the other place. Indeed, the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, the right honourable Keith Vaz, described the Third Reading debate in another place as a wonderful consensus. I hope, of course, that we can continue that in this House today. The amendments on Part 1 that the Government proposed in the other place were a result both of listening to the debate that took place in this place about the definition of customs functions and of internal discussion. Clause 1 enables the Secretary of State to exercise the function of the Commissioners of Customs and Excise concurrently with them in relation to general customs matters. The term "general customs matters" may draw in certain functions already exercisable by the Secretary of State. There was therefore a need to ensure that the other provisions in the Bill—such as the information provisions in Clauses 14 to 20—apply only to the functions of the commissioners that the Secretary of State will be able to exercise under the Bill. Further, the changes made in the other place make it clear that these general customs functions include functions under Community law. The amendments also ensure that adjustments are capable of being made by order under Clause 2 to exclude or include, as appropriate, particular functions from the definition of "general functions of customs". Amendments 1 and 2 to Clause 1 have clarified the meaning for the purposes of Part 1 of the Bill of the general customs functions that will be exercisable by the Secretary of State and by general customs officials. Amendment 3 is related to Amendments 1 and 2 and ensures that particular functions can be included or excluded from the definition of general customs functions as appropriate. Amendment 4 reflects the new definition of a general customs function in Clause 1, while Amendments 6, 7 and 8 are consequential on the new definition of a customs revenue function in Clause 7. Taken together with Amendment 5, which clarifies the customs revenue functions under the Bill, they ensure that the information protection regime established in Part 1 applies to all relevant functions, including those under Community law. Amendments 11 and 14 are also related. Amendment 11 clarifies the scope of Clause 26, which provides for the making of transfer schemes by HM Revenue and Customs. Amendment 14 defines the new term "Community law" using Clauses 1 and 7. Amendment 9 will insert a new Clause 25, the original of which will be removed by Amendment 10. It will create a revised definition of a short-term holding facility in the new clause. This will allow such facilities to be used either solely for administrative immigration detainees or for a mix of such detainees and persons detained under other powers. Amendment 25 makes a necessary change to the schedule consequential on Amendments 9 and 10. Amendments 12 and 13 to Clause 28 are technical amendments to meet the stated policy intention, namely to allow the independent chief inspector to scrutinise the full range of UKBA functions, including whether the Secretary of State and the Director of Border Revenue are exercising their customs functions appropriately. I beg to move.