Written evidence to be reported to the House

Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:00 pm on 16 October 2007.

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Photo of Philip Hollobone Philip Hollobone Conservative, Kettering 5:00, 16 October 2007

In line with your direction to concentrate on the latter part of the Bill if we can, Mr. O’Hara, I am particularly interested in part 11, “Special immigration status”. I know that that is not something that the Police Federation concentrated on in written evidence, but I wish to draw out from the witnesses the position, as they understand it, on the apprehension of illegal immigrants at large in the United Kingdom. I want to ask about that because it seems to me that there is a good opportunity in the Bill, if the current law is not satisfactory, to tighten up what I believe is a loophole.

There was a case recently in Northamptonshire in which 16 illegal immigrants jumped out of the back of a lorry. Three were apprehended by Northamptonshire police, who telephoned the Border and Immigration Agency only to be told that they should encourage those three people to make their own way to the immigration office in Croydon. You can understand the outrage that that caused in Northamptonshire. I want to ask for your association’s view of how the law is meant to operate and how it actually operates in practice.