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Gladys Taulo

It is not discouraging. We could perhaps talk outside this debate about the way forward, when the right hon. Lady has considered the letter. Let me turn to the particular case. The right hon. Lady has outlined the background to it. It comes down to the point that a work permit and an extension to it were granted. Then, in 2008, a local immigration team in Kent investigated—not, as I understand it, the specific lady, but the employer. That again meets the right hon. Lady's point about targets, as this did not happen in any way because this lady was a soft target or anything like that. However, she was served with an IS151A, which the right hon. Lady will remember is a notice to a person liable to removal as a worker in breach of condition under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which invalidated her work permit. Incidentally and for the record, contrary to the accusation that the Government had an open-door policy at that stage, the 1999 Act toughened up the immigration rules. Mrs. Taulo was permitted to work for two employers under the terms of her work permit, but only within the hours allowed. There was a breach of the conditions of the work permit, which led to the IS151A. There was a mistake at that stage of the case, which, after my investigations, I have been able to highlight. The order was mistakenly issued on the basis that Mrs. Taulo could not work for both companies. As the right hon. Lady said, that is not the case; it is permissible to work for two or even three employers, as it is the total hours that count. This was correctly served on Mrs. Taulo, however, on the basis of the number of hours she worked. Mrs. Taulo was advised of her right to an out-of-country appeal against the decision to invalidate the leave. However, an in-country appeal was incorrectly lodged against that decision to curtail her leave—and the decision was not, of course, taken by the UK Border Agency. Leave had not been curtailed; it had been invalidated. I know that the right hon. Lady understands the difference, as she has done this job herself. As there was no in-country right of appeal, the appeal was invalid and it should have been struck out. I have no information to explain why it was not struck out or why the appeal continued, but in any case the judge dismissed the appeal—the right hon. Lady predicted this part of my speech—upholding the decision to serve the IS151A, stating that removal would not breach article 8, as it had been claimed. Further appeal was lodged in the High Court. It is at this point that the public start to get frustrated by the seemingly endless delays in the courts, but on 10 October 2008 Mrs. Taulo was deemed appeal rights exhausted and liable to removal. In February 2009, Mrs. Taulo was interviewed in connection with her children's education and it was agreed that it would not be appropriate to pursue enforcement action because of the timing of the A-levels being studied by one of the children. We provide that flexibility. Again, I am heavily criticised, as is anyone holding my position, for providing that flexibility, which is sometimes difficult to explain to constituents. However, let us think about moving forwards, which is what the right hon. Lady wants to hear. Mrs. Taulo is permitted to make an in-country, online application under tier 2 of the points-based system. That procedure will tell her immediately whether she has enough points to succeed. Mrs. Taulo's employers would need to obtain a certificate of sponsorship if they have not so already, although I imagine they would have in this sector of work. The UK Border Agency will take no enforcement action against Mrs. Taulo or her family while her application is processed or during the three months before any of her children sit any final exams—GCSEs, A-levels or their equivalent. I hope that is helpful, but I do not intend to go into too much detail on the procedure. It is best if we can proceed on the basis I have set out, if, of course, that is what the lady in question and her family want to do. If that is the case, for my part, I will ensure that no enforcement action is taken in the meantime. Turning to the wider policy, to be fair to the right hon. Lady, she did not specifically criticise UKBA—indeed, she did not even mention it. She did mention the culture of targets, however, and any person with common sense understands the point she makes. The agency does not just bear that in mind: through our board and management structures, it looks to see that there are no unintended consequences of the application of targets. We apply the criteria in such a way that the most harmful cases are handled first, which normally means those where there is criminal activity or the fear of it , or where there is the actuality or fear of violence within the family. We also expedite cases where it is relatively easy to remove, because there is a wider saving to the taxpayer in that. However, I should emphasise that in this case the lady was not targeted, as the impression may have been given. One advantage of the points-based system for temporary work and study is the ability to hold the sponsor to account as well as the visa holder; in this case that was an employer, while in tier 4 cases it would be a college or institution. That system is proving to be successful in managing migration, although at the fringes there are, of course, relatively petty and unintended breaches of the rules. I can only take the right hon. Lady's word for it that in this case there was an unknown or unintended breach—it was to do with the hours and not the fact that there were two employers—but that takes us into a difficult area for public policy management where rules are involved. We are dealing with significant numbers of people in the work permit system, and there are bound to be such cases at the edges.