Results 1-20 of 5,340 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Phil Woolas

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: This relates to a policy to clear a backlog of general immigration cases between 2002 and 2004. The incidents in question happened more than five years ago and were the subject of a full inquiry by Ken Sutton at the time, in 2004. The Home Office accepted that report in full and implemented all the recommendations made. The report can be read on the website and has been there since 2004. A...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: Mr. Speaker, I seek your guidance on the hon. Gentleman's accusation that Ministers deliberately deceived the British public.

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I am very grateful, Mr. Speaker, for your confirmation that that was not the accusation by the Opposition spokesman, who has just, in this House, accused Ministers of breaking the law. Perhaps I could address what is clearly the hon. Gentleman's latest political gimmick. He seems to ascribe to Ministers a motive that he had when he made his rather embarrassing gaffe at the Conservative party...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: Let me explain the background to the House. As I said in my answer to the urgent question, the policy issues were dealt with thoroughly and comprehensively by the Sutton inquiry, and are not the subject of the question tabled today. That rather reveals the motive for asking the question. The hon. Gentleman referred to Mr. Neather, the Evening Standard correspondent, who wrote in that paper...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his support for the border control measures that we are putting in place. Indeed, he and I agree on the need for those border controls. I wonder whether he will join me in asking the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), who has tabled the question today, whether he has dropped his opposition to border controls. The fact is that there are...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I am grateful to the Chairman of the Select Committee. The answer to his first question is yes. Nothing in the question and answer today in any way affects the veracity of the evidence given to the Select Committee last week. Indeed, the question today is about the allegation that we have broken the law in applying the Freedom of Information Act, and that is something that I absolutely...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: There is a conflation of two points there—I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his political imagination, but he is talking about different things. The issue of controversy was over the then A2 applications and how they were dealt with—

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: The right hon. Gentleman says from a sedentary position that he was there; I remember it very well. He extrapolates from that the accusation that there was a political plot. There is no evidence of such a plot; indeed, the Government's Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 was criticised for being too authoritarian on the issue of immigration— [Interruption.] Some right hon. and hon. Members...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: Again, that question is about current policy, not about freedom of information. With your agreement, Mr. Speaker, may I say that if Members are concerned as to why we are here five years after the events, the timetable of compliance with the FOI shows the Home Office in very good light indeed. Indeed, I was surprised that I was able to do to comply so quickly; the delays were not down to the...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: The hon. Gentleman has reported back from the Select Committee in a way that does not reflect what I told that Committee. The allegation that immigration officers and entry clearance officers do not have those powers is simply not the case. If the hon. Gentleman is suggesting that an immigration officer should be able to refuse entry into this country—without any reason, when that is...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I hope that the whole House agrees that immigration and customs officials in the UK Border Agency do an important job professionally and well, often in very dangerous circumstances, and have to take some very difficult decisions. I remind the House that 285 million people were transited in and out of the United Kingdom last year, which represents a significant challenge in immigration and...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I thank the hon. Lady for that question, and I take it that she has read the information that has been disclosed—

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: She indicates that she has, in which case she will be able to confirm that the information was checked for all people, as is always the case, against the watch lists. That was said at the time. The Brace—backlog reduction accelerated clearance exercise—operation, as it was known in 2002-04, replicated guidelines that had been used in the past by Governments of all persuasions....

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: At the time, the A2 countries were not members. My hon. Friend follows such issues carefully, and he will have noted the statement that I laid before the House last week on extending the restrictions to A2. I note that he welcomes that. I am grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to bring that to your attention, Mr. Speaker— [Interruption.] No, I am grateful, because it is a good...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: One of the pieces of propaganda being put around is that, somehow or other, there was a deliberate Act of Parliament, or policy decision, to expand immigration. As I said a moment ago, the legal framework under which the Government operated in 1997 was the British Nationality Act 1981 brought in by the Conservative party. We introduced the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which strengthened...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: We are very grateful to the good people of Croydon, which, as the hon. Gentleman says, is our major base. The fact is that the major pieces of legislation—the 1961 Bill that led to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, the Immigration Act 1971 and the British Nationality Act 1981—are the framework for immigration in this country, and since 1997 the Government have introduced a...

Olympics: FOI Request (Immigration) (9 Nov 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I am grateful for what the hon. Gentleman has said. The debate on European Union immigration is a debate in which I am more than happy to engage. I am more than happy to justify the benefits gained by the United Kingdom. I am thinking of, for example, the half million British people who live in Spain, the work and study opportunities that we have in the European Union, and the story of...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Work Visas (26 Oct 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: Those who have leave to work in the United Kingdom at the time that they apply for an extension may carry on working until their new application is decided. Those who do not have leave to work in the UK when they apply for permission to work must wait until their application is decided. We have no plans to change that.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Work Visas (26 Oct 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: If there is a particular case that my hon. Friend would like me to take up, I shall look into it. However, the application for the permit is due within three months of its ending, and on this matter we have set a target of achieving decisions on 75 per cent. of applications within four weeks. Mr. Speaker, I can report to you that we are achieving decisions on 94 per cent. of applications...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Work Visas (26 Oct 2009) has video

Phil Woolas: I hope that the hon. Gentleman has not lost the will to live. I do not know the details of that case, but my experience, having been in this job for more than a year, is that things are often not as they appear at first glance. We are dealing with the backlog very successfully now, and I point out that our decision rate is much quicker than it was 12 years ago. Resources are being put into...