Clause 4 - Entry clearance
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
1:15 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
Many of the hon. Lady's points about students are well made. I am with her all the way along until she says how disruptive the Bill will be. As we have discussed, a number of things are going on in the higher education sector. I do not believe the last part of her speech where she almost says, but not quite—this is an over-characterisation—that all the ills that currently beset the HE sector result from visa fees increase or what the Bill seeks to do to appeal rights.
I am keen to work as constructively as I can with the HE sector and to address broader issues such as the buoyancy of our economy, the level of currency and the fact that many competitor nations are getting their act together far more readily than they have in the past 20 years. I will discuss those matters in detail at the joint action taskforce. I will discuss them tomorrow morning with Universities UK. I am keen to go forward.
Let us be clear what we are talking about, not just on these amendments, but in the broader sense of clauses 4 and 1. It is not correct to say that any tweaking of the rules and regulations in immigration and asylum legislation is always simply in response to abuse. It is unfortunate that sometimes the debate is characterised in those terms. To look for a substantive evidence base that there has been abuse as the reason for a change is misguided. We are looking for the most productive and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow says, transparent and clear set of rules and regulations so that everyone, including the applicants, understands exactly what is going on and, if a decision goes the wrong way, understands the precise reasons why.
Reform is not always prompted by abuse. Of course there has been abuse on the student side, largely by institutions here rather than individuals. I freely accept that. We will try to address that with the Department for Education and Science. It may be parliamentary badinage, but it is inappropriate to quote my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in an entirely different context from the early 1990s. The context is entirely different because the reform, investment, resources and all the other elements of the five-year plan and the points system were not on offer and on the table in terms of appeal rights at that time.
We are trying to get to a stage where there is clarity, transparency and everything else in the system for all concerned. We want to reach a stage in the context of entry clearance and appeals where a number of things happen. Yes, there will be that transparency and clarity. Yes, there are improvements to the decision-making process. Yes, the sponsor has a stronger role and greater responsibility, especially in education and employment cases, but within a context of almost light-touch regulations for due compliance and the heavier hand where there is less than compliance from employers or individuals. It is in that context that we need to understand what is going on in clause 4 and in the rest of this part of the Bill.
Much of what is in the clause and germane to the amendments is not to do with looking for substantive evidence of abuse in every case. We do not introduce reform only in response to abuse. We want a proper and comprehensive system.
The clause is not about playing with and tweaking the system for the pure administrative and economic convenience of the Government—I would not stand up and promote it if it were. However, we need to be aware—I understand entirely why the debate has gone in the direction that it has—that were we to leave the processes as they are, the image given would be that appeals are instant—that they happen overnight as if by magic. Part of the reason for the provisions is that we need to address the fact that, under the existing appeal process, students, employers and others can wait anything up to two years for their case to be determined. That cannot be right, either in terms of what we want to achieve, or for the applicants themselves.
Rather than hanging on to elements of the system that are outwith the new system, I urge the Committee to consider what we are doing overall. I do not say that just to advertise the fact that we are consulting on a five-year strategy and a points system but because those elements are central to what we are doing. I firmly believe that, by working with the education sector in particular, we can achieve what we both want to achieve in the context of what the Government seek to do.
Nor should people run away with the notion that the timing will be thus: the Bill is secured; its commencement is instant; the points system follows perhaps a year later; and, if we think about it, we will then make improvements to the system and put in resources to improve the entry clearance officer and decision-making processes. Again, I understand why, but that is the image that the Committee has given of how the Government are operating. I will not—I cannot—be locked into some mechanistic process that says, let us do this first, and if improvement occurs—if the appeal rates go down—then let us next go there and there. I do not believe that that is appropriate, or the way to run a railroad in terms of public policy.
I have said, and I am happy to provide more information on this to the Committee, that we are starting the process of greater investment now, particularly in training and development and in putting more resources into the entry clearance officer process. In response to the point that the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham made earlier: yes, I am confident that we will exact from the system the increases in efficacy and efficiency that we require.
With a fair wind, and allowing for the vagaries of what happens in the House of Commons and in another place, I hope that by April-May next year we will secure Royal Assent, and I would hope also by then to be able to give greater assurances. We are still working through things, and progress depends on where the points system goes, how long that will take and other related matters, but there should be some notion of commencement orders for specific parts of the Bill.
The only assurance that I can give is that the implementation of the Bill will not be instant. It would not be appropriate, the day after we secure Royal Assent, to roll out every single aspect of the Bill, and we will not do so. However, I cannot go beyond that and give an assurance that by such and such a date, through such and such a process of monitoring or whatever else is suggested by amendment No. 24 and others that relate to the heart of the clause, we will flick a switch that says that everything is fine and dandy now with the whole process so we will move towards commencement for the provisions of the Bill. Life just does not work like that. I am also convinced that the points system—there is plenty of time for more consultation on the shape of the beast—will not be introduced until mid-2007, at the very earliest.
Resources and investment are being introduced now to facilitate the improvement that everyone wants. The points system will be introduced at the earliest by 2007, with commencement dates for the provisions of the Bill happening as and when appropriate, but not immediately.
That cannot happen immediately because—I know by now that everyone will have lovingly read every word of the consultation paper on the points system—we are marrying the visa-issuing process and the entry clearance process, which is another issue that people have broad concerns about. If there is anything more troublesome for people, it is when, for all the system's vagaries and difficulties that Opposition Members allege there are, someone gets a work permit, a student permit or whatever else, only to find that he or she does not get a visa because of some delay. That cannot be right either.
Central to the points system, as well as what we seek to do in the Bill, is the role and function of those at ECO level. It does not take a genius to work out that it may be some time before the provisions are implemented in full. That is why I meant it when I said that people must understand the interlinking nature of the Bill and the points system far more clearly than they thought they had to.