Clause 23 - Documents produced or found
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
10:30 am
Andy Burnham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leigh, Labour)
It was a completely gratuitous remark, Sir Nicholas, and I shall move on.
Clause 23 relates to documents produced or found at immigration control—documents produced to an immigration officer. As I understand it, the hon. Gentleman’s amendment relates to the existing and long-standing power of an immigration officer to retain a passport or other relevant document on examination of an arriving or departing passenger. An immigration officer can retain more than just a travel document.
I assure the hon. Gentleman that the purpose of clause 23 is to rationalise and simplify the existing provisions so that the same procedures apply to the examination and detention of all types of documents. It may help the hon. Gentleman if I explain that at present those powers are laid out under the provisions of paragraph 4 of schedule 2 to the 1971 Act, but a distinction is made between travel documents and “other relevant documents” that may be of use to an immigration officer in their inquiries. Therefore, at present there are two different sets of procedures governing the detention of documents. We believe that it would be easier and more convenient for immigration staff if they could operate under a single code, so the clause rationalises and simplifies those procedures. The clause does give immigration staff powers to detain documents, but those powers already exist—immigration staff could at present detain a document for more than seven days, or until removal.
The hon. Gentleman quoted the example of a case involving someone who was unable to leave the country, but proposed new sub-paragraph (b) states clearly that the document can be detained
“until the person ... is about to depart or be removed following refusal”.
The power exists for documents to be released should the person wish to leave the country.