UK Borders Bill

Part of Orders of the Day – in the House of Commons at 4:27 pm on 5 February 2007.

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Photo of Liam Byrne Liam Byrne Minister of State (Home Office) (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality) 4:27, 5 February 2007

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I shall come to precisely some of the protections that it is important to put in place in the next few months and in the years to come. However, there is a broader point that I hope he will welcome. If the IND is to become a stronger agency, it must become more open and accountable not only to this place but to the public. We propose to change the structure and pattern of regulation and inspection that the IND currently enjoys because I do not believe that 11 different regulators and inspectors are big enough and strong enough on their own to hold it to account.

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Owen Pearman
Posted on 6 Feb 2007 2:55 pm (Report this annotation)

Seriously now - years?!
If controls need to be introduced into this bill then the time to do this is now, a bill should not take years to draft, especially such a vital, time-sensitive one such as this.