Clause 42
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
2:00 pm
Damian Green (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Ashford, Conservative)
The Minister has just helpfully mentioned the activity condition, which is clearly a central new idea that the Government are introducing. The amendment is designed to probe some of the details. At the moment there is a large black hole in the Bill as to what is meant by activity condition. Even those who accept in principle the argument that the Minister made in our most recent debate, have a series of legitimate questions about how this activity condition will be implemented in practice. Yet again, inevitably, the details are not given and are left to be clarified in secondary legislation, but as it is such a significant shift in this country’s attitude to immigration and immigrants, it is worth the House knowing as much as it is possible to know at this stage.
I was grateful to receive an e-mail yesterday—I am sure the whole Committee received it—about the document that had been made available. I was slightly less thrilled when I discovered that the document had been sitting in the Vote Office for 48 hours before the e-mail went out. The Minister looks puzzled, but the document is dated 4 June—