Clause 101 - Inland Revenue
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
Clause 101 concerns the disclosure of information by the Inland Revenue. My amendment would narrow the circumstances in which the Commissioners of the Inland Revenue could supply to the Secretary of State information for the purpose of establishing where a person is. The clause has the same purpose as the previous clause, but concerns the Inland Revenue rather than local authorities. My amendment is wider than Government amendment No. 294, which affects subsection (1)(b). My amendment would replace subsection (1)(a) with different wording, and its purpose will be obvious to the Committee.
At present, the definition is non-legal and does not refer to any offences. It provides that the Secretary of State should be able to exercise the power when he or she reasonably suspects that the person does not have leave to enter or remain and it is not lawful for them to undertake employment. The Government amendment proposes a different formulation of subsection (1)(b). The two paragraphs are linked with the word ''and''. My amendment would replace the subsection (1)(a) with a prerequisite that the Secretary of State reasonably suspects an offence under the Immigration Act 1971, and the offences listed are those that the Minister listed earlier.
If we have a law about whether someone can be in this country or not, the prerequisite for the Secretary of State to act should be that he or she believes that that law has been broken. If I am wrong, I should be grateful if the Minister would explain the circumstances in which subsection (1)(a) could apply if an immigration offence had not been committed. I have not been able to think of any, and if there are not any such circumstances, I hope that she will consider my amendment favourably.