Mr Humfrey Malins (Woking, Conservative)

I beg to move amendment No. 232, in page 27, line 2, leave out 'may' and insert 'shall'.

This relates to travel expenses. For the system of reporting to work properly, the person travelling to report should be provided with costs: it should not be discretionary. I want to probe the Government on that point.

Ms Rosie Winterton (Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department; Doncaster Central, Labour)

I accept the hon. Gentleman's concerns, but I hope to reassure him. As he said, the amendment would require the Secretary of State to meet the travelling costs of those required to report to a police or immigration officer. I confirm that we already meet the travel expenses of supported asylum seekers to enable them to attend their appeal hearing, and that includes the travel expenses of dependants. We also meet the expenses of those attending bail hearings in connection with a family member who is detained under immigration powers.

The clause proposes that the reasonable costs of those required to report ''may'' be met. Final decisions have not yet been taken, but it is currently proposed not to meet travel costs if the reporting is less than three miles from the person's home. I can reassure hon. Members that exceptions will be made for the elderly, the physically infirm and heavily pregnant women.

Some people required to report will be able to fund the cost of travel themselves, but requiring the Secretary of State to meet the travel costs of all

those required to report would add considerably to costs. The immigration service is examining several options to deal with the problem of reporting centres that are a considerable distance from some people's homes. We referred in an earlier debate to using mobile reporting centres, creating more static centres and converting some IS offices to multifunctionality. We shall also continue to use the police where necessary.

I hope that the hon. Gentleman will accept that we cannot fund the costs of all who attend to report, but we are prepared to consider specific cases.

Mr Humfrey Malins (Woking, Conservative)

I am grateful for the Minister's response, and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 49 ordered to stand part of the Bill.