Clause 38 - Conditions of support
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
11:45 am
Ms Angela Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wallasey, Labour)
I hope that I can give the hon. Gentlemen the assurances that they seek. It is not intended that the reporting conditions will be onerous or that they will be put into effect in an unreasonable manner. However, we want a better, more tightly managed process, and the clause provides the levers that we need for a rights and responsibilities reporting regime. Asylum seekers will be told from the beginning what is expected of them. They will be fully informed at the induction centres about the process, their part in it and their responsibilities.
Asylum seekers who report as instructed will have nothing to fear from our proposal to link the provision of support to compliance with the requirement to report, and their travel costs will be paid if they have to travel to a particular place in order to do so. If they fail to report as directed without reasonable cause, their support may be terminated. That is when the reasonableness test and the proportionate nature of the response applies. If someone has not reported for good reason—for example, if they or someone in their family has been ill—it would be ludicrous to visit extreme consequences upon them. That is not what the clause provides, as reasonableness issues are taken into account.
A more managed system, with regular reporting, will enable us to be in regular touch with those who seek asylum. The clause will clearly be more relevant to those who are not in accommodation centres. We want to keep asylum seekers informed, and we will expect from them a level of engagement with the process that has not been required to date.