Clause 8 - Immigration officer: power of arrest
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
3:00 pm
Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
Thank you, Mrs. Roe. I welcome you to the Committee this afternoon. In this debate we are considering the extension of immigration officers' powers of arrest. We have already had one canter round this course and the Committee will recall that on that occasion I made a general case about the precautions that should be in place if immigration officers are to have an enhanced power of arrest. The three areas that concerned me were: first, the application of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984; secondly, the training of immigration officers to perform their tasks; and thirdly, the lack of an independent complaints procedure. In her reply in the previous debate, the Minister satisfied me, at least partly, on some of those points. To take them in reverse order, she told me that an independent complaints procedure was under consideration, and that she would write to me with details. Obviously, she has not had the opportunity to do so yet, but I welcome that, and I look forward to hearing her proposals in due course.
On the training of officers, the Minister explained that only those who had received arrest training from the police, and had qualified as arrest-trained officers, could effect arrests. Although there is no statutory backing for that, that is apparently the procedure within the immigration and nationality directorate. I also welcome that, although I still have views about how immigration officers should be given a wider role, with concomitant training. I think that they should be sworn officers of the law, but that is a debate for another time in another place.
The Minister drew my attention to the immigration codes of practice directions, which were already in place, and which she said underpinned the behaviour of immigration officers when making arrests. I should like briefly to deal with that point. First, having considered the two directions that were issued in 2000, I note that they were predicated on specific powers of arrest under specific legislation. It is clear to me that new directions should be issued in order to cope with this legislation when it is enacted. Can she confirm that the Government intend to introduce new directions in order to cover the widened powers of arrest that she proposes?
Secondly, I should like to follow up the point raised very pertinently by the hon. Member for Perth (Annabelle Ewing) in the previous debate. I hope that this is not too narrow a point, but it concerns the relationship of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to Scotland where, of course, the Act does not have jurisdiction. We had reassurance from the Minister during the Committee's third sitting on Tuesday morning when, in response to an intervention by the hon. Member for Perth, talking about the practice of asylum and immigration matters, she said:
''that does not mean that how we require immigration officers to behave when they are executing important powers is not safeguarded in relation to how they operate in Scotland. It clearly
is, and the codes of practice that I outlined to the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome make that perfectly clear.''—[Official Report, Standing Committee B, 13 January 2003; c. 109.]
I have looked at the codes of practice that were outlined to me to see how they made that ''perfectly clear''. In the first one, the Immigration (PACE Codes of Practice) Direction 2000, article 3 makes it ''perfectly clear''. It says:
''This Direction does not apply in Scotland.''
In the second one, the Immigration (PACE Codes of Practice No. 2 and Amendment) Direction 2000, article 4 says:
''This Direction does not apply in Scotland.''
I accept that immigration officers are undoubtedly working to the same protocols in their work when they apply these terms in Scotland. However, unless there is a separate statutory instrument, of which I am not aware or have been unable to find—if there is, I should be extremely grateful if the Minister could draw my attention to it—there does not seem to be an additional statutory basis of protection for those who are arrested in Scotland by immigration officers working under reserved legislation—the various asylum and immigration Acts of the UK Parliament. There may be a lacuna. It may simply be that I am unable to find the relevant Scottish legislation, in which case she can help me and show me what is involved. It is clear that new secondary legislation is needed for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to widen the scope of PACE to incorporate these new powers.
The amendment would remove those subsections that deal with theft, obtaining property by deception and the related offences under the Theft Act 1968. I understand the reasoning. I do not wholly oppose the view that immigration officers should have a widened power of arrest for matters that relate to immigration, including some that do not relate simply to providing false documentation at a point of entry. However, I am a little more at a loss as to why those other offences have been included as arrestable offences on the part of immigration officers rather than police officers.
There are two places where an immigration officer is likely to make an arrest, and one is at the port of entry when he first encounters the individual. Although it could happen, it is relatively unlikely that a person will have committed a crime of theft, obtaining property by deception, false accounting or handling goods between leaving a plane or ship and arriving at immigration control. If it were to happen, it is likely that it would be either directly associated with another offence against immigration law, in which case the power of arrest on the part of the immigration officer holds, or an ordinary crime such as knocking someone over the head and stealing their money. In the latter case, a constable would normally make the arrest and it would not be a matter for an immigration officer. I am not absolutely clear why the power is needed for these crimes at that point.
More worrying is the situation when the immigration officer will be called on to make the arrest in country. There is the prospect of considerable confusion between immigration officers, whose principal duties are not to apprehend people for such crimes, and police officers, whose principal duties are.
I do not want there to be that operational confusion. The hon. Member for Woking has yet to speak to his amendments, but they appear to make matters worse—the concept of robbery and burglary being investigated by immigration officers is slightly bizarre—but he will explain why he feels that that is appropriate.