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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, we very much welcome the Government’s acceptance in the other place last week of the arguments put forward both in this House and there about the great benefits of the common travel area to the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland in particular. We are pleased that the Government will not press ahead with their plans to introduce immigration checks for those travelling between the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain and we thank them for listening to the concerns of this House and the other place. However, I have one question for the Minister. Can he confirm that the Government will not go ahead with their proposed ad hoc checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic? As discussed in Committee and on Report, concerns have been expressed in Northern Ireland that there could be a danger of racial profiling for people who are stopped, because they would need to satisfy the requirement of proving their identity in such a way that might well lead to ad hoc identity checks. We would very much welcome an assurance from the Government that such checks are now not possible and that they will not take place.