Clause 38 - Conditions of support
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
11:45 am
Mr Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 216, in page 20, leave out lines 26 to 36.
The amendment would remove specific reference to the reporting arrangements and the conditions imposed on the individual receiving support. The intention is to test the Government's thinking on the restrictions under the Immigration Act 1971 that can be imposed on individuals when they are admitted temporarily, or on their release from detention on arrival, and to establish which thresholds the Government are considering. The reporting arrangements can include an individual's place of residence, their employment and their requirement to report.
Some breaches of those requirements will be serious, some will merit the consequential loss of support and others may be minor and technical. The amendment seeks to establish the Government's approach and the extent to which the regime will be absolute or reasonable; we hope that it will be the latter. Clearly, there will be technical breaches. For example, an individual may fail to report because of illness or for another good reason that may be explained later. We want to test the proposition that
support will not be withdrawn unreasonably because of minor and technical breaches of conditions. Similarly, there will be a range of cases in which individuals will be subject to restrictions pending deportation. Individuals who are doing all they can to resist deportation may not report, and some may have complied but may have technically breached the restrictions.
We want to establish the link between support and restrictions in order to determine whether the Government are trying to introduce a reasonable regime that responds properly to individuals' circumstances, or are trying to withdraw support on technical grounds when withdrawal is not merited.