New Clause 10 - Fingerprinting
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
3:00 pm
Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Woking, Conservative)
Further to that point of order, and briefly, Sir Nicholas, may I repeat from these Benches those thanks to you and your fellow chairman, Mr. Illsley, for the very courteous and efficient way in which you have chaired the Bill? We would like to couple that with our thanks to the excellent Clerks, Dr. Benger and Mr. Cranmer, who have been of such assistance to us all. Our thanks to the police, the Doorkeepers and Hansard for the excellent work that they do, and to the officials, who have been so kind as to brief us through the Minister’s good offices on a number of matters.
I thank my hon. Friends, the Members for Ilford, North (Mr. Scott) and for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski), for their support. It would be wrong of me not to thank my Whip, my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham); otherwise I should be in great trouble. I thank him most warmly for his support and help. I particularly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham, who has shouldered a great deal of the work on the Bill and has spoken so well on behalf of international students and educational institutions. She has worked terribly hard and I am most grateful. I am sure that we will revisit all those matters on Report.
I thank the Minister for the way in which he has conducted himself, and the hon. Gentlemen on the Liberal Benches likewise. It has been a good-tempered Bill. The Minister said that those hon. Members who have served on a Standing Committee for the first time would have found this Committee an easy experience because it was good-tempered and the Bill was interesting. Both facts are true, but he failed to add that the Bill has also been dispatched in a couple of weeks, whereas you, Sir Nicholas, the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham will know that, in the past, many Bills have taken months to be considered in Committee, which has always been an enormous pleasure to those who have taken part in such proceedings. Who knows what will happen in the future? With those thanks, I shall now resume my seat. I give final thanks to the Minister for his courtesy throughout the proceedings.