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Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
5:00 pm
Mr David Lammy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Tottenham, Labour)
I am told by the Whip that that is not possible. I thought that we would be continuing on Thursday morning. I shall therefore proceed with some haste.
Proposed new section 108A will prevent the judicial review of tribunal decisions. That is the Government's determination, and I make no excuse for our intent. I heard what the hon. and learned Member for Harborough and the hon. Member for Woking had to say, but the Government's case is clear. Our proposal is within the bounds of legality, and the mischief about which the hon. Member for Woking challenged the Government is there in the delays and abuse of process.
It is important to set out the areas in which the provision does not have effect, particularly as regards executive decisions of the Home Secretary. There is still access to judicial review if no right of appeal is available. Some executive decisions that can be made by the Home Secretary are still judicially reviewable; for instance, decisions taken when there is no right of appeal, or no in-country right of appeal. Also, cases in which the decision is not taken as a consequence of a tribunal determination will still be subject to judicial review; for instance, if a failed asylum seeker has exhausted their appeal rights and who puts forward new evidence to the IND as a fresh claim. If the IND decides that the claim was made to delay and frustrate removal and that there were no other legitimate
reasons, the decision could be challenged by the claimant in a judicial review. That will not change. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow and the hon. Member for Winchester were particularly keen to determine the effect of subsection (7)(e).
The new system has the flexibility to deal with changing circumstances. The hon. Member for Winchester picked up this point. If an applicant's circumstances change between the Home Office's decision and his appeal to the tribunal, he can raise those changed circumstances at the appeal hearing. If an asylum applicant whose appeal has been heard and dismissed faces a change in circumstances at that point, it will be open to him to make a further asylum application. The Secretary of State will retain the power to issue a certificate under section 96 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 if he considers that the purpose of the claim is to frustrate removal and that can be challenged in the normal way.