Part of UK Borders Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:18 am on 27 February 2007.
Mr. Byrne: This is an important point to clarify. We have sought to preserve the Home Secretary’s flexibility when deporting people on the grounds that they are not conducive to the public good to ensure that serial offenders are addressed by the provisions. At the moment, we issue guidance to caseworkers to help them to judge whether somebody who has committed an offence is conducive to the public good. The provision is for two to three sentences, committed over a five-year period, that total 12 months. It is important to keep guidance in place in the first instance so that those serial offenders can be dealt with using the provisions before us.