Clause 16 - Immigration Services Commissioner: power of entry
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
3:30 pm
Ms Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Citizenship and Immigration), Home Office; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
Perhaps I might be allowed to respond to the points raised earlier by the hon. Member for Winchester. He is right about the potential impacts on the immigration process of a person whose documents were seized as a result of the commissioner's investigating his adviser. The issues are important. They are logistical issues of administration, which we must get right.
We are speaking to the commissioner about how to ensure that people are not disadvantaged if they lose their adviser. We have a process of immediate liaison with the Legal Services Commission to appoint a new adviser. I am happy to write to the hon. Gentleman, when we have concluded discussions with the commissioner, outlining that process in some detail. He is right that we need to establish processes to ensure that a person's immigration application is not disadvantaged by his adviser's being investigated.
On amendment No. 96, this is one of the rare occasions when a Minister can say that everyone is right in the points that they made. On this and some Government amendments to come later, we appreciate the points that have already been made. We are consulting Scottish Executive colleagues on whether only sheriffs should have the power to issue the warrants. Notwithstanding the comments of the hon. Member for Perth—to whose knowledge I defer—the position of JPs in Scotland is complicated. I take the point made about the different jurisdictions, but some JPs in Scotland have signing powers for warrants and others do not. At present, both sheriffs and JPs can sign some warrants, although I heard the arguments against JPs doing so. I will have to return to that on Report, because we are still holding talks with the Scottish Executive.