Clause 60
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Damian Green (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Ashford, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment 61, in clause 60, page 47, line 35, at end add—
‘(12) If any part of this Act has not come into force within two years of it receiving Royal Assent the Secretary of State shall report to Parliament the reasons.’.
I do not often table amendments to a commencement clause, but I thought that it was worth doing so in this instance. I have been looking back at the record of the implementation of the multitude of immigration Bills that have been introduced. By my analysis there have been eight. The spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne), always makes it nine; we have never quite reconciled the numbers. I think that this is the third such Bill that I have had to deal with. I am sorry to weary the House with some detail, but it is worth doing.
If one goes back to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, sections 98 to 117, 125, 130 to 137 and 146 have not yet been commenced. One might argue that that is fair enough as that Act was only passed last year. However, going back to the UK Borders Act 2007, sections 19, 24, 32 to 38 in part and 57 have not yet been implemented. Whole shoals of the Identity Cards Act 2006, which had a significant effect on immigration, have not yet been commenced—thank God. With a following wind and a sensible new Home Secretary, they never will be.
Going back even further, section 16 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004 has not yet been implemented. I have four lines on the sections of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 that have not been introduced. I will not weary the House with details, but the second half of that Act just was not implemented at all; sections 44 to 47, 51, 53 and 124 have not yet been implemented. One can go back even further to Acts dating back to the last century and find parts that have not been implemented.
That tells us that the Government are very keen to rush in a new immigration Bill every session. However, at some stage after the House has scrutinised it but before anything happens in the real world, they decide not to implement large parts of it. So I suppose that I am seeking some assurance from the Minister that he is absolutely sure that everything that we are discussing and passing in this Bill will actually happen in the real world, because all the evidence of previous Home Office immigration Bills is that that is not the case. I want to know exactly how much time of the Committee and the House is being wasted in discussing and passing legislation that is destined never to achieve anything.