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Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
5:45 pm
Mr David Lammy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Tottenham, Labour)
I did not miss it. My point is that if we moved to a single-tier arrangement without examining restrictions on access to the higher courts, the volume of cases moving in their direction would increase. We must study the whole system if we are to solve the problem. We are seeking to deal with individual claimants who use the system to string out their cases over a long period. The arrangements that we are setting out will vastly shorten the experience, which must be a good thing for genuine claimants.
New section 108B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 gives the tribunal's president the power to refer points of law that arise during proceedings to the appropriate appellate court. We have had much debate about that provision, and it is important that we put it in place. It is right that the president should be able to use that power if he thinks that a reference is appropriate.