| Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
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The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): Before dealing with the amendments, I should like to set out the aim of clause 15. Clause 15 makes provision for the electronic monitoring of persons subject to immigration control who are at least 18 years old in the following circumstances: where a residence restriction is imposed; where a reporting restriction could be imposed and where immigration bail is granted subject to a recognizance or a bail bond, except where bail is granted by a police officer or in the special circumstances of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. Therefore, it would include bail issued by a chief immigration officer—it can only be by a chief immigration officer where detention would otherwise be considered—or by an adjudicator within the immigration process. Persons subject to electronic monitoring in accordance with these provisions are obviously required to co-operate with arrangements for detecting and recording their location at specified times, during specified periods. The hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Oaten) asked about alternatives. As he rightly said, the electronic means employed in connection with such arrangements could include voice recognition technology, the use of a tag to confirm a person's presence in or absence from a specific location, perhaps at a specific time and, when technology develops, tracking someone to monitor their whereabouts continuously. We intend eventually to pilot all three types of electronic monitoring. They potentially have the ability to respond to different levels of risk in relation to absconding. As the hon. Gentleman said, the voice recognition technology uses biometric voice recognition software to facilitate reporting over a telephone from a fixed landline from a fixed address at a notified time. We could use that technology to obviate the need for people to report physically to a centre on a weekly basis. We would obviously specify a particular hour—there would be some flexibility—for them to ring in and to have their voice and location checked. Tagging involves wearing a bracelet similar to a wrist watch, which emits a signal to a receiver at the subject's home address. We may require a subject to be at home for a particular hour in the week, or more frequently for people who present other kinds of risk to confirm that they are complying with a residence restriction. That would again serve in lieu of physical reporting. Column Number: 364 Tracking involves using global positioning satellite technology to pinpoint the whereabouts of a subject on a continuous basis, and is of a different order. That technology is in its infancy. However, we seek the powers to be able to use it in the future, if and when it becomes available on a practical basis. Tagging will allow those at the lower end of the risk spectrum, who would otherwise have to be detained or would have to report on an onerous basis, to be monitored electronically in other ways. That will free detention space for those whom we believe present a higher risk of absconding. Hon. Members will see that it will be potentially efficient both for the immigration and nationality directorate, and for some of the people whom we would otherwise require to report regularly. The intention is to use the provision in cases in which there is a risk of absconding, but in which we assess that that risk can be managed by electronic monitoring. I now turn to some of the other points raised by hon. Members. I think that I have answered the questions raised by the hon. Member for Woking about who can grant the bail and issue the reporting restrictions for which electronic monitoring could be a substitute. In practice, although the clause mentions imposition, we can use the measures only with the consent of the people concerned, because if they do not consent to it, there is no point in using it. Detention would, however, be the only alternative for some people, and that would act as an incentive for them to consent to electronic monitoring. The hon. Gentleman gave the example—I think that he answered his own question—of people appearing before district judges or lay magistrates. That would occur in criminal circumstances. They would therefore be subject to a completely different set of arrangements with regard to whether the sentence for any criminal offence included the possibility of tagging after a prison sentence. The hon. Gentleman mentioned cost and numbers. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Harris) asked how the provisions would operate with families. It is difficult for me to give estimates of cost and numbers. We want to pilot the mechanisms gradually. However, where we believe that there is potential to use the measures extensively to avoid the expensive use of detention, we will do so, and will retain detention for higher-risk people. The question of families raises some difficult issues, and I would like to consider those further. My hon. Friend raised some important points. When we consider a family, it is, by definition, a group of people. I would like to think that some of the few families who would otherwise have to be detained could be considered for electronic monitoring. However, the risk assessment is more complex, because of the potential for the family to split up if they are in the community. We would need to consider that carefully. Detention should be for the smallest amount of time possible to remove someone or to obtain the documents that will enable them to be removed. We will continue to impose that constraint. When Column Number: 365 someone's claim has failed, we work towards removing them, and we would want to apply that constraint to electronic monitoring as well as to detention.My hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow raised the difference in wording between the residence and reporting restriction provisions. The clause states that reporting restrictions ''could be'' imposed. The provision envisages the use of voice recognition technology to enable a person to report by telephone. It will be an alternative to reporting in person to a reporting centre. In practice, it may be reporting by telephone monthly, or in person quarterly. There could be flexibility in the way it would operate. Amendments Nos. 165 and 166 would introduce a procedure for subjects of electronic monitoring to make representations to a chief immigration officer. I assure the hon. Gentleman that, as with existing arrangements for temporary admission, conditions of bail and so on, genuine reasons for apparent non-compliance with electronic monitoring are and will continue to be taken fully into account. The measures are not intended to trip up people who want to comply and who tell us voluntarily that they genuinely cannot meet a particular appointment or a particular reporting session. They are intended to ensure that those who would not otherwise comply do so more securely. Those arrangements, in which reasons for non-compliance are taken into account, have been in place for a long time. We would also apply those to the electronic monitoring requirement. On amendments Nos. 169 and 174, I do not think that it is necessary to state that arrangements for electronic monitoring must be ''necessary and reasonable'', or
As I have said, decisions to require electronic monitoring will be taken following a thorough risk assessment of individual cases. It is one of a range of contact management tools available, ranging from detention at one extreme to release bail, temporary admission or temporary release, with or without conditions, at the other. We shall choose the least intrusive option necessary to manage the risk in all cases, taking into account not only the individual but our resources. Turning to amendment No. 172, the rule-making power under subsection (8) is designed to maintain maximum flexibility in the light of new and rapidly developing technology. If the amendment refers to rules governing the application of an electronic monitoring requirement by immigration officers, the criteria that are used to assess the risk of absconding when we consider bail, temporary admission and temporary release are already in the public domain. Additionally, the detailed framework arrangements for electronic monitoring are in the contracts managed by the Home Office for the delivery of electronic monitoring. There is a lot of experience of that in the criminal justice system, on which we can draw. I do not feel that rule-making needs to be mandatory. Column Number: 366 Annabelle Ewing (Perth) (SNP): Will the Minister give way? Beverley Hughes: The hon. Lady has an unfortunate habit of always intervening as I am about to sit down, but I am happy to give way. Annabelle Ewing: I am grateful to the Minister, and I apologise for not being here at the beginning of the debate, which is why I have not sought to intervene. Obviously, these measures are far-reaching, so I am pleased to note that there will be a pilot to see if they work. Given the crossover with the criminal justice system, which is separate in Scotland, what discussions has the Minister had with Scottish Executive Ministers? What is their position? Beverley Hughes: On these particular measures, there is not really a crossover with the criminal justice system. I was trying to make that clear. We are considering how we could apply some of the measures—as well as some of the flexibility that electronic monitoring has already demonstrated in the criminal justice system—to the contact management arrangements for people going through the immigration system. There is potential for using these measures in Scotland as part of that contact management and reporting restrictions. I can assure the hon. Lady that I meet regularly with my counterpart Minister in the Scottish Executive, and my officials are working very closely with officials in the Scottish Executive on these proposals as we develop them and think about implementing them. We are not going into these matters with an English and Welsh-centric perspective. Nor are we unsighted on the implementation issues that might pertain in Scotland, because this is a reserved power. We have the power to introduce a proposal such as clause 15 but there are no crossovers with the criminal justice system here. We are simply using what we have learnt about electronic monitoring and applying it—creatively, I hope—to the needs of the immigration system. I hope that I have answered most of the questions and explained how the proposal will work. I hope, too, that I have convinced the hon. Member for Winchester that there is no need for his amendments.
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