Clause 31 - Duty to share information
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
4:00 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
Before the clock so rudely interrupted me, I was explaining how, in substance, much of what this group of amendments does is simply to add “the Treasury” where at present the Bill says “the Secretary of State”, referring to the Home Secretary. It is a technical amendment in the sense that the clause concerns the duty to share information among those agencies and services that come under the purview of the Home Office—the police service and the immigration service—with, as can be seen in clause 31(1)(c), Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, which naturally comes under the Treasury. It is therefore appropriate that both the Home Office and the Treasury are involved in the duty to share information. All that the amendments do, in the main, is to extend to the Treasury all references to what the Secretary of State should or should not be doing, largely because Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is involved. It is terribly straightforward.