Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
10:30 am
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) during proceedings on the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill, in addition to its first meeting on Tuesday 18th October at 10.30 am, the Standing Committee shall meet on Wednesday 19th October at 4.30 pm, on Thursday 20th October at 9.00 am and 1.00 pm., on Tuesday 25th October at 10.30 am and 4.00 pm and on Thursday 27th October at 9.00 am and 1.00 pm;
(2) the proceedings shall be taken in the following order and shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 5.00 pm on Thursday 27th October: clauses 1 to 10; schedule 1; clauses 11 to 44; schedule 2; clauses 45 and 46; schedule 3; clauses 47 to 49; remaining proceedings on the Bill.
May I say briefly, Sir Nicholas, what a delight and pleasure it will be to serve under your chairmanship? The previous time that I had the pleasure was a short, three-month stretch in the Committee considering the Greater London Authority Act 1999. That was a huge delight, which I remember well, although it does seem a terribly long time ago.
In moving the programme motion, as I said in the Programming Sub-Committee, we shall strongly seek to ensure that as much debate as possible takes place on issues chosen by the Opposition. That is their role in Committee. We have no wish or desire to curtail debate or to put knives or any formal timetable motion before the Committee. Members will understand, however, that because we have agreed an extra two sittings, we hope to deal with the counter-terrorism clauses that crawled out of debate and discussion during the summer into this Bill rather than into the Terrorism Bill. It is in our collective interest to ensure that there is time for those clauses to be debated in full for the first time. I hope that that will happen without the need for the imposition of a further timetable motion, but we reserve the right for the Programming Sub-Committee to resume its deliberations should it need to. I do not think that that will be necessary, however, given the spirit of the Programming Sub-Committee's meeting.
I fully understand the Opposition's point that the Bill is frontloaded. We shall not make a judgment on progress based simply on the length of our deliberations, particularly on clauses 1 to 10, which deal with appeals. Much of the Bill's substance and meat is contained in those clauses. I am entirely alive to that notion, as I am to the notion that the Bill spends much time amending previous Bills. The Bill is a legalistic jigsaw puzzle—we must refer back not only to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, but to earlier Acts to get our heads around it. I have therefore undertaken to try to get copies of the principal Act—the 2002 Act—as amended by the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004, for the Opposition's principal spokesperson. I am more than happy to provide those. In that happy, consensual context, I put the programme motion to the Committee.