Clause 2 - Entering United Kingdom without passport
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
11:15 am
Ms Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Citizenship and Immigration), Home Office; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
Does the hon. Gentleman accept that in the wording of subsection (8), if the officer reasonably suspects that a person has committed an offence—that is, he does not have the document—he may proceed to arrest? If, as in the hon. Gentleman's example, the person then says, ''Ah, but I do have a document and I can produce it,'' there is a question whether the officer is reasonable in his suspicion. That is what I was trying to explain. The officer then has to make a judgment as to whether the claim to have a document that is producible is credible. It is credible if, in the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman outlined, the officer believes that a document can be produced. It clearly would not be in the public interest to proceed to arrest in those circumstances rather than to allow that document to be produced, because if the document can be produced, an offence has not been committed.