Clause 4 - Entry clearance
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
1:00 pm
Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow, Labour)
I will be brief. I wish to make a couple of comments about the group of amendments and the wider debate on them. Given the time that we have spent on the clause already, we shall probably not have a clause stand part debate.
I understand some of the points about appeal rights disappearing that the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) made in moving the amendment. Many hon. Members have concerns when appeal rights disappear, not least for the selfish reason that I mentioned in the debate on clause 1. The disappearance of appeal rights on anything to do with asylum and immigration almost always leads to an increase in our work load. People without appeal rights do not just go away—they will be in touch with us.
Although clause 4 deals with entry clearance rather than with people who are already in the UK, many people who apply for entry clearance will have relatives here—that is certainly the case in family visits and even student visa applications. Sponsors in the UK are not necessarily family members, but they often are.
We will get the fallout when appeal rights disappear. We get the fallout now when there are delays in the system. The periods that can sometimes elapse waiting for case statements to be sent from the overseas post to the Home Office and on to the asylum and immigration tribunal is often a source of complaint and problems.
I suspect that the points scheme will improve matters. The hon. Lady suggested that nothing should be done unless there is an entirely objective system. To ask for a system that is 100 per cent. objective is to ask for the impossible. Whatever rules one makes or whatever points systems are devised, it will be absolutely impossible to devise a system that will cater for every conceivable set of circumstances. We are dealing with individual people's individual circumstances, and those circumstances will all be different in some way. Those of us with experience of other points systems, such as that relating to local authority housing applications, know that however carefully things are done, there is always scope for disagreement, argument and concerns about exactly how objective the process has been. However, the points system in immigration will at least make the situation much more transparent than it is now. It will be much easier to see the basis on which decisions are taken and to compare one set of decisions with another. One hopes that it will make it much easier for entry clearance officers to take decisions that are consistent within a post and from one post to another.
I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will address a specific point in replying to the debate, whether or not he is minded to accept amendment No. 24. Under the clause, he has the power to make regulations that will affect who does and does not have rights of appeal and the grounds on which people might appeal. It would be useful to the Committee if he gave some indication of his thinking on that.
It would also be helpful if the Minister responded to a further point. He is aware that a very significant number of hon. Members have concerns about changes to appeal rights for family members, and particularly about the possibility of oral appeals disappearing. I recall dealing quite recently with a student visa case in which the sponsor in this country going to the oral appeal and convincing the adjudicator of his credibility was a very significant factor in the appeal being allowed. A very considerable number of hon. Members, particularly Labour Members who deal with large numbers of asylum and immigration cases, would welcome hearing the Minister's thoughts on whether he might be able to think again about just how far he will go on family appeals.
My final point relates to points made earlier by the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham. I understand that the Minister would not wish to tie himself down to a commencement date that depended on an organisation outside the Government and the Home Office. However, there will be an issue about the commencement date of all the provisions in the Bill. In relation to some of what has been said about the quality of decision making, about the efforts that the Minister is making and about the introduction of a points scheme, it might be helpful if he gave some indication of the lines along which he is thinking as regards commencement dates and how a commencement date might relate to what is being done on the points scheme and on reducing some of the delays that currently occur in the system.