New Clause 10 - Fingerprinting
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
3:00 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
On a point of order, Sir Nicholas. You will know that this is a not a point of order, but we have reached the end of our deliberations and it is traditional to make some passing comments before we dispatch the Bill back to the House.
First, I thank you enormously for all that you have done as Chairman, Sir Nicholas, in as exemplary a style as ever. I am sorry, given that we have finished our deliberations, to have missed all the Bills that you have chaired between the Greater London Authority Bill of 1998-99 and now. I am sure that they would have been enormous fun. In passing, I apologise first for having verbally deprived you of your knighthood and subsequently for having deprived you of it in a letter today, which starts “Dear Nicholas” rather than “Dear Sir Nicholas”. That is not a matter of disrespect and I hope that you will forgive me. I also thank Mr. Illsley, who covered and dispatched proceedings with equal charm and efficiency.
I also thank, as Ministers used to forget to do when I was a Whip, my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) on her conduct of matters. At least in part, those dark arts to which I was privy in a previous manifestation are reflected in the temperate—or otherwise—nature of a Committee as it carries out its proceedings. Although we have dealt with complex issues, we have done so in a harmonious and, for the most part, thoughtful and informed way.
I thank, too, all colleagues on both sides of the Room, particularly those on my side. This is a new experience for most of the hon. Members on the Government side, and I have to say that this is as good as it gets—they have been blessed in having a good experience on their first Committee. I have debated plenty of Bills that have been either far more boring or far more hostile—that is fun for about five minutes, and then it gets worse. That is not to imply that it is all downhill from here, but perhaps we can hold a conference once my hon. Friends have sat on a couple of other Committees. They can then come back and say that I was right.
I have also to say—and entirely mean—a huge “thank you” to those on both Opposition Front Benches for the way in which they have conducted matters. It could almost be considered strange, given the nature and tone of the election, that we managed to look at these very serious matters in a far more grown-up way than would have been the case had those on the Opposition Front Bench reflected people’s deliberations during the election. I shall take the Front Benchers as they are any time rather than those who would be here doing rather pale imitations of Alf Garnett and Enoch Powell in the way that the Leader of the Opposition did during the election. I am very grateful for that.
I would also say in passing, and again sincerely, a thank you to the Home Office officials—I am a little pedantic in that three or four years on as a Minister, I still scribble through letters and utterances that are supposed to go out in my name, crossing out “my officials”. They are not mine; they are the country’s. As the Committee has seen, they have been, to-ing and fro-ing rather like an American football team with the offensive team and the defensive team going on and off. A huge amount of time and many officials have been involved, and I am grateful to all of them.
Finally, I am enormously grateful to Hansard for recording what I freely accept has—occasionally, and only occasionally—been my drivel. It looks quite nice the next day. While I try to avoid giving the Committee the impression that I do not have a clue what I have just said or what it meant, I know the next morning when Hansard has done its excellent work. I must also thank the Doorkeepers, whom we have not troubled that much with locking and unlocking the doors, for which I am grateful to everybody. The Bill is dispatched after a good deal of informed deliberation, for which I thank the entire Committee and particularly, again, you, Sir Nicholas.