Clause 35 - Searches: contracting out
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
5:30 pm
Andy Burnham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leigh, Labour)
I, too, will be brief. This ground was covered in our exchanges a moment ago. The amendment seeks to remove the power of detention by an unauthorised person. Vehicle searches are currently undertaken by immigration officers who have the power to detain any person seeking to enter the country in a clandestine fashion. The purpose of the legislation is to provide additional resources at optimal cost to allow for the redeployment of those immigration personnel. There is nothing sinister about it; it is simply about using resources where they are most effective. It is therefore essential that those undertaking the task be empowered to detain any persons they discover until such time as they are able to hand them over to the appropriate authority.