Results 1-20 of 2,216 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Damian Green

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Asylum Applications (26 Oct 2009) has video

Damian Green: It is now more than three years since the former Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid), famously promised to make the asylum and immigration system fit for purpose. Since then, fewer than half the legacy cases have been concluded. The backlog of applications under the new asylum model increased by more than a third last year, and last week the existence of...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: Does the right hon. Gentleman he share my concern that the hurdles to citizenship which, as he says, are central to the Bill are still wrapped up at this stage? Does that not strike him as peculiar, and potentially slightly disturbing?

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I echo the Minister's thanks to all the officials who dealt with the Bill. That meant that technically its passage was smooth, even if in other ways it was less so; I also echo his remarks in that respect. I think, most unfashionably, that in this case we can give about two and a half cheers for parliamentary procedure. It is pretty unfashionable to say that Parliament works and does its job,...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I very much agree with the right hon. Gentleman, and I was going to come to that later. We had a greatly truncated debate about trafficking, about which I share his concern. As he says, I have lavished the Minister with praise, but I now wish to express deep concern about some matters. Before I come to trafficking, I begin with the common travel area. Although the Minister has withdrawn the...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: Certainly, at no stage has any Minister made the case that the process would not cause huge inconvenience to travellers on some routes. Almost before considering that practical stage, it is worth asking whether the security aspects that the Government pray in aid are themselves practical. I do not believe they are.

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I am not aware that the Government have produced convincing evidence about the loophole in our defences. I know that the Irish Republic has taken considerable steps to improve its border security in recent years and that the Minister approves of those measures. [Interruption.] We do not oppose the principle of e-Borders, as the Minister knows. He keeps repeating that canard—he knows it...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: The Minister wilfully misunderstands. We do not completely rely on the Republic of Ireland. As the hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Rowen) pointed out, the Government have passed legislation, which, if implemented, would significantly affect precisely the people they are trying to keep out. However, they have not implemented it.

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I agree. The Minister should stop digging, because his warnings of what not taking the steps that he wants would mean for the security of this country are becoming ever more apocalyptic. If he genuinely believes that, he should argue his case. He should take it back to the House of Lords. However, having lost a vote there, he has given up and caved in. That suggests he does not believe that...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I am grateful for your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker, though I am sure you will admit that your generosity and latitude was rewarded by some interesting exchanges. We have discovered a lot recently, and, in rapidly closing the out-of-order part of my speech, I simply say that, although the Minister mentions evidence, the only evidence that he has produced so far is a newspaper cutting. That...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: My hon. Friend, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) and many other Members on both sides of the House and in both Houses, do very good work on that group, and I am glad that some of the Bill's measures will actually help in the fight against human trafficking. The Minister will be aware that we have been urging him to greater activity in this regard. We spent some...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: The hon. Gentleman makes it 11; at some stage we must sit down and work out which he thinks are immigration Bills and which I do not think are. Either way, we have had at least enough, if not too much, such legislation, of which this Bill is the latest in a long line, that has not been matched by any significant increased effectiveness in the immigration system. Today the Minister has heard...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I agree. Indeed, I was making the more general point that much more effective control of our borders is essential not just in itself, which it is, but as part of the general fight against serious and organised crime, which is increasingly international. Indeed, crime is being globalised as much as any other aspect of the world economy. One of the advantages that we ought to have as a country,...

Bill Presented: Repeals (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I genuinely do not wish to be the first person to call for the recall of Parliament over the summer, particularly when we have not even gone into recess yet. I hope, however, that the Minister has heard my views on this interesting proposal that was dangled before Parliament and then withdrawn. I am aware that others wish to speak, so I will end with the thought that, for the third time in...

Bill Presented: Clause 55 — Trafficking people for exploitation (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I beg to move amendment 26, page 46, line 9, at end insert— '(1A) In section 4 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 (c. 19) (trafficking people for exploitation), after section 4(5) add— "(5A) The Secretary of State shall publish a code of conduct to guide Entry Clearance Officers in their treatment of applications which they suspect involve human...

Bill Presented: Clause 55 — Trafficking people for exploitation (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I am glad that we have a brief time to discuss an extremely important part of the Bill and the extremely important issue of human trafficking, and the action that we wish the Government to take to stop this particularly vile trade. I wish to speak in particular to amendment 26, in which we seek to establish that the Secretary of State should have a code of conduct to guide entry clearance...

Bill Presented: New Clause 1 — Entitlement to British citizenship by certain citizens of the Republic of Ireland (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I am tempted to go down the route set by the hon. Member for Thurrock (Andrew Mackinlay), but I will resist that temptation and leave the Minister to respond to his points, because there are many very important amendments and new clauses in this group. I want to address three of them—and to do so fairly briefly, as there are further important groups to come. In the current group,...

Bill Presented: New Clause 1 — Entitlement to British citizenship by certain citizens of the Republic of Ireland (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I had hoped that the hon. Gentleman was listening to my speech, in which I made the point that highly skilled migrants are particularly valuable to this country, and as he will be aware, the court case was specifically about those migrants. Those are the people in the frame, as it were, in terms of the Government's unfairness.

Bill Presented: New Clause 1 — Entitlement to British citizenship by certain citizens of the Republic of Ireland (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I think we should make progress. The Government have not learned from this and have tried to introduce in the Bill retrospective changes to the citizenship rules. As the hon. Gentleman has just pointed out, our colleagues in another place tabled an amendment and, again, the Government were defeated. I hope that the Minister might recognise that he has not just lost the court case and a vote,...

Bill Presented: New Clause 1 — Entitlement to British citizenship by certain citizens of the Republic of Ireland (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: Indeed. I completely agree with my hon. Friend. Genuine concerns arise about the type of activities that would count. There is a potential burden on the voluntary sector, and particularly on small charities. There could be huge demands for form-filling, and we understand that referees for applicants may even be fined. The Minister is proposing a national checking service, which would be a...

Bill Presented: New Clause 8 — Transfer of certain immigration judicial review applications (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I thank the Minister for his warm and entirely justified tribute to Lord Kingsland, who died so suddenly and tragically at the weekend. His work on this legislation will serve as an exemplar for much of the very good work that he did in Parliament and elsewhere. It showed his concern that the legal system should provide justice and that the legislation that we pass through both Houses should...