New Clause 5
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
2:00 pm
Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister says that the new clause is imperfect, in that it will have unintended consequences in relation to parity with soldiers from the Commonwealth. However, it would have been within the Minister’s remit to address the issue himself. If there were imperfections in the new clause, he could have dealt with them. He did not deal with the question of guidance being exactly that. I understand that civil servants can disregard guidance. I presume that it can relatively easily be modified—changed, deleted, added to and so on. We have an opportunity in the Bill to address the issue in a more permanent way than that which is currently offered by the guidance. The Government should have taken that opportunity, and I therefore intend to stick with my new clause and not withdraw the motion that it be read a Second time.