Clause 45 - Detention by secretary of state
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
12:45 pm
Ms Rosie Winterton (Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department; Doncaster Central, Labour)
The clause gives the Secretary of State the power to authorise the detention of certain categories of person, currently liable to detention on the authority of an immigration officer. It does not mean that people who cannot currently be detained will be liable to detention in future and it does not affect the number of people who will be detained. It increases the number of people able to authorise detention.
Amendment No. 290 is primarily a drafting change and is a substitute for existing provisions. Without that consequential amendment, the relevant provisions of schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971 would not apply to persons detained under the clause, including the ability to seek and be granted bail and the granting of temporary admission or temporary release. It merely puts those detained under the clause on the same footing as those detained under the powers of detention in the 1971 Act.
Without amendment No. 291, another consequential amendment, persons detained under the clause would fall outside the scope of the regulations relating to bail applications made under section 53 of the 1999 Act. The regulations to be made under that section have yet to be drafted but we intend that they should include a presumption to be granted bail in prescribed circumstances. Section 53 of the 1999 Act at present relates only to detention under the powers contained in the 1971 Act. Clause 45 gives a free-standing power to detain, and persons detained under that power would therefore be excluded. The amendment to section 53 of the 1999 Act rectifies that and ensures consistency of approach. A similar position applies in relation to the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.
I hope that that explains the Government's position on the amendments and that the Committee will accept them.
Amendment agreed to.
It being One o'clock, The Chairman adjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at half-past Four o'clock.