Clause 26 - Conditions of residence
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
6:00 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
As the Committee will see, the group of amendments starts with three that were tabled jointly by the hon. Gentleman, his colleagues and us, followed by two more tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam and me. We have made a lot of progress since a year ago. When I was doing this job before the run-up to the last election and going into television and radio studios with Ministers and their Conservative shadows, the entire debate that the Conservatives wanted us to have was about these new centres. They could never quite make up their mind, depending on who was speaking, whether they were detention centres or not. Technically, they were not detention centres and so were a slightly odd creation.