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'( ) the provision of support for asylum-seekers and their dependants under Part VI;'.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: No. 16, in page 51, line 13, at end insert--
'"Secretary of State" means the Secretary of State for Social Security;'.
No. 19, in page 52, line 42, at end insert--
No. 153, in page 53, leave out lines 15 to 18 and insert--
No. 154, in page 54, line 35, leave out
No. 155, line 36, at end insert--
Mr. O'Brien:
This group of amendments deals with part VI of the Bill. Government amendment No. 30 will enable information held by police, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the national crime squad, Customs and Excise and any person specified in an order made by the Secretary of State to be supplied to the Home Office for use in the provision of support to asylum seekers and their dependants. That will help us to identify and bring to justice those who seek to abuse the asylum support system, and allow us to receive information from other agencies, which are to be specified--such as the Benefits Agency--that we need to operate part VI of the Bill.
Although we certainly do not envisage any great use being made of the provision, it is necessary to assist in the prevention of fraud in particular cases. As the Government have stated on numerous occasions, it is intended that the power to supply information shall be operated in a manner that is consistent with other applicable legal requirements, most notably data protection legislation and article 8 of the European convention on human rights.
It may well be that, in tabling amendment No. 16, Conservative Members are trying to suggest that, against the background of the current and--perhaps thanks to the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison)--well-publicised difficulties in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, they lack some confidence in the Home Office's ability to deliver an efficient service to destitute asylum seekers.
Hon. Members will be well aware of the reasons for the problems faced by the IND, but those problems are being dealt with. On the latest figures, 67 per cent. more asylum decisions are being made this year than were made last year. Moreover, over the next three years, £120 million extra will be put into the IND's budget. We shall also recruit hundreds more staff, and are currently actively recruiting 200 more staff members.
On Monday, the long-lost Siemens computer system arrived. However, we think that it will take five or perhaps six months of testing before we are absolutely certain that it works as it was meant to when it was signed up to in 1996.
The number of cases being processed each month by the IND has started to rise again, with the target being that, by 1 April 2001, on average, decisions will be taken within two months, and that any subsequent appeal will be determined within another four months. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has given a commitment that, with effect from 1 April 2000, decisions on the asylum claims of families with children will be delivered within two months. If that cannot be achieved, they will not be brought into the new support arrangements on that date.
Giving the Home Office responsibility for supporting asylum seekers, in addition to processing their substantive asylum claims, will create a more focused approach in meeting the needs of asylum seekers than has existed in the past, and provides an added incentive in ensuring that the targets are achieved. By placing responsibility for the new support arrangements in the hands of the Secretary of State for Social Security--as Conservative Members propose doing--that advantage would be lost. We therefore cannot accept amendment No. 16.
One of the reasons for the growth of the backlog under the previous Government was that no one really had an incentive to deal with it, as the costs were met by the Department of Social Security or by local councils. The Home Office needed to have a vested interest in clearing the backlog, but did not have one. Under the new financial arrangements, in which all funding--including support funding--will be with the Home Office, the Home Office will indeed have a vested incentive to process cases quickly and on a sustainable basis. We shall have to employ the people that we need to ensure that that objective is achieved.
It is important also that the arrangements provided by part VI of the Bill should be kept separate from the main social security system. The new system will be designed to provide support for limited periods and in different ways from the social security system to people who have distinctive needs that are quite different from those who are in the UK on a long-term basis.
Amendment No. 19, tabled by the Conservatives, appears to be directed at the commitment to reduce the time taken to reach an initial decision on asylum claims to an average of two months and the average time taken to determine an appeal to four months. Despite the problems that the IND has experienced in recent months--indeed, for the past decade--action is being undertaken to deal with the backlog, and we are making progress towards reaching our targets for processing cases.
Information on the average times in which claims are processed and appeals are determined is not published routinely, but it is in the public domain. By way of replies to parliamentary questions on the subject, which appear to be asked quite regularly, not least by the hon. Member for Hertsmere, the information can be obtained at any time by Members of Parliament. However, there is a case for the information being published on a more regular basis, and because the proposals in the amendment are not the best way of achieving that, we shall consider other means of making the information more widely available.
As the hon. Gentleman is aware, the Government now publish regular bulletins on asylum and immigration trends, so one of the means that we shall consider is inserting in that statistical bulletin a category detailing
how quickly decisions are made. That would go further than an annual report to Parliament, in that it would provide a more regular bulletin. I give no commitment now to introduce such a measure, but I acknowledge the argument for making the information more readily available and have no objection to doing that. Our intention is to tackle the issues and ensure that we hit our targets, and we are well prepared to be held accountable for that.
The basic safety net that the new support arrangements for asylum seekers will provide assumes that the period of time an asylum seeker needs to rely on the safety net is to be kept to a minimum. However, it must be borne in mind that, under the current arrangements, many asylum seekers receive little in the way of back-up and general assistance. Under the new arrangements, the voluntary sector will be of fundamental importance, providing a considerable degree of back-up and assistance to asylum seekers. The Bill contains provisions to encourage the voluntary sector to do that. Hon. Members may be assured that the overall conditions experienced by most asylum seekers will be improved from current standards. The rather chaotic system that we inherited left a lot to be desired, and we are strongly committed to improving it.
We went over the ground covered by the Liberal Democrats' amendment, No. 153, at some length in Committee. As I explained then, the Government's view is that the availability of cash benefits is a significant pull factor to some people, who choose to use the asylum process as a means of supporting themselves while visiting this country for reasons wholly different from a well-founded fear of persecution. I do not suggest that that is true of all asylum seekers or even of the majority, but it is true of a significant minority, and substituting vouchers for cash payments is a disincentive to those who would exploit the system.
'(12) The Secretary of State shall within one year of this section coming into effect and every year thereafter make a report to Parliament on--
(a) the provision of support for asylum seekers and their dependants under this section; and
(b) the length of time asylum seekers wait for--
(i) his determination of their application; and
(ii) appeals against his decisions.'.
'(3) The Secretary of State may provide support under subsection (1)(a), (1)(b) or (2) above, wholly, mainly or partly by way of cash payments made (by whatever means) to the supported person or his dependants (if any).'.
', or might reasonably be expected to be,'.
'(3A) No personal possessions connected with marriage or religious beliefs and any other assets as are proscribed by the Secretary of State shall be taken into account under section 83(3) above.'.
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