Clause 4 - Entry clearance
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
10:15 am
Cheryl Gillan (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Chesham and Amersham, Conservative)
I stand corrected. However, the Minister's view is certainly not the feeling that is held out there. Although his words will reassure the sector that he is listening carefully to it, actions speak louder than words and the taking of some ameliorating action on the provisions as drafted would provide the greatest comfort to the sector rather than any joint working with educational taskforces or other quangos and bodies.
There is an argument that I find difficult to take. It is along the lines of, ''Don't worry about the loss of appeal rights. We know that the quality of initial decision making is poor, but we'll sort that out. Don't worry, we are putting in more training. In another couple of years, a better system will be in place and there will be no need for the right of appeal. It will all be put together in a five-year plan. We have laid it out. It will take us time. Trust us.'' It is difficult to trust the Home Office when the independent monitor's report makes it plain that, when there is no right of appeal, applicants are frequently wrongly refused visas with no right of redress. It is difficult to go down the road of trust when more than 25 per cent. of student appeals are successful under the current system. It is difficult to go down the road of trust when the university of Sheffield says that it currently overturns visa refusals in 90 per cent. of cases.
I need to know what is in the Minister's mind and what makes him imagine that, given the scale of the problem that I have outlined, he will be able to remove all the errors in a couple of years. I hope that he will accept the argument that is advanced predominantly by Universities UK and others that it is not possible to remove all subjectivity from the decision-making process. Does he not realise that, as he is proposing to remove the right of appeal before introducing a better and more robust system, Opposition Members would be irresponsible if we did not challenge the logic of that move?
The Minister could offer us a lot of comfort by proving that the new system will work, by demonstrating that the entry clearance monitor is satisfied with it. After providing such proof, he could return to the House with proposals to abolish the right of appeal. His argument might then be seen to be credible and might find wider favour than it has so far with the interested bodies outside the House. I hope that the hon. Member for West Ham is wide awake, given that she has not felt the necessity to intervene. The Committee is poorer for her lack of intervention. I hope also that the Minister will now give us a full reply to the issues that have been raised so well by those who briefed me outside the Committee.
It being twenty-five minutes past Eleven o'clock, The Chairman adjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at One o'clock.