Clause 4 - Entry clearance
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
9:45 am
Evan Harris (Science, Non-Departmental & Cross Departmental Responsibilities; Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
This group of amendments probes the Secretary of State's future intention on appeal rights. They would ensure that regulations restricting rights of appeal are subject to the affirmative procedure in Parliament. One of the problems with the Bill is that it gives wide discretion to the Minister as to whether the decision can be appealed. The only direct precedent for it at present is the ability of the Minister to specify the family members who may appeal against the refusal of a visit under section 90 of the 2002 Act, which the new clause would repeal. The amendments provide an opportunity to urge the Government to consider whether it is appropriate to deal with matters such as the affording or taking away of a right of appeal through delegated legislation. It would also be helpful if the Government were willing to address the point that I have raised before about whether they will lay draft regulations before Parliament so that it can be seen which groups of people will lose their appeal rights. It does not seem unreasonable for us to ask the Government to provide that information before we debate and vote on whether we should remove, carte blanche, the appeal rights of a huge number of people. That is the purpose of the amendment. I made most of my points about the clause in my initial remarks, so I need not comment further.