Schedule 2 - Asylum and Immigration Tribunal: Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provision
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
6:45 pm
Mr Humfrey Malins (Woking, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 139, inschedule 2, page 31, line 23, at end insert— '(ha) In subsection 2(n) after ''service'' insert ''and shall provide for service of any notice of appeal on both the tribunal and on the Secretary of State''.'.
The amendment would provide for service of any notice of appeal on both the tribunal and the Secretary of State. I am grateful to one or two of the adjudicators, who spoke to me about the matter. The amendment would ensure that the appeal process in both immigration and asylum is initiated by serving the appellate authority, rather than the Home Office, with the notices. Since immigration appeals began in 1970, it has been the practice for appellants to serve the Home Office—or the entry clearance officer, in overseas cases. That enables the Home Office to be as slow as it chooses—and it often is—in sending the appeal to the appellate authorities. It also means that, from time to time, the Home Office can reach agreements with the appellate authorities as to how many cases it will forward in particular categories each month. That enables the appellate authority to plan its work and the use of its human and other resources. However, it seems to many people to be wrong in principle that one party to an appeal should be able to determine the way in which the appellate authority deals with cases. I understand that a recent case called Vowsden suggests that the authority should be seized of a case once notice of appeal has been served, even if it then languishes for months in the Home Office. Procedure rules would determine whether the notice of appeal should be copied to the Home Office as well as being served on the appellate authority. There may be reasons for serving notices of appeal on the state, in cases in which a review of the decision is a real possibility, because that would lead to savings of time and money. However, that would be rare in immigration and asylum cases. I should be glad if the Minister could address the issues raised by the amendment. Mr. Lammy: We already have the enabling power to prescribe procedures for appeals in rules, but the amendment would place the method of lodging the appeal in primary legislation, which would be slightly unusual. I am aware that there are concerns that appeals should not be lodged with one party to the appeal. The current system, which allows appeals to be lodged with the immigration and nationality directorate, has proved to be efficient and has helped the immigration and nationality directorate and the Immigration Appellate Authority to manage their work loads. However, in moving to a single tier of appeal, it is time to reconsider the procedures for the new tribunals. For that reason, I would like to reflect further on the principle underlying the amendment and to take it away with me if I may.