Clause 107 - Notice
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
Our amendment would have a similar effect. If the Government are to resist the amendments for the reason anticipated by the hon. Member for Woking, there is still the issue of when the
employee or the customer of the financial institution should be notified and given the information. As the hon. Gentleman said, the Government may resist the amendments because they do not want the individual to be tipped off. Nonetheless, it is important for the person to know where the information came from so that inaccuracies can be dealt with.
A firm that is no longer based in my constituency was subject to a routine check by the Department of Employment—as it was then—on whether all the employees were lawfully engaged. I assume that there had been a tip off. There was a comic side, because the management was entirely white and the workforce entirely black—Ghanaian, I believe. The inspectors asked the management in the front office if they could go through to the shop floor. They were told by the managing director's wife, who was on duty, that they could of course go through to the shop floor, see the workforce and speak to whomever they wanted. The inspectors went through to the rear part of the building where the work was being done, returned a few minutes later and said, ''Is this a tea break? Where is the workforce?'' Every member of staff had disappeared after being tipped off, whether they were here legitimately or not.
It is important that people should know about the suspected case against them. That is the secondary purpose of our amendment. Its primary purpose is to notify the individual concerned and the employer or financial institution simultaneously.