Twelfth Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation

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Twelfth Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation

The Committee consisted of the following Members:

Chairman:

Mr. John McWilliam

†Browne, Mr. Desmond (Minister for Citizenship and Immigration)
Carmichael, Mr. Alistair (Orkney and Shetland) (LD)
†Clifton-Brown, Mr. Geoffrey (Cotswold) (Con)
Davidson, Mr. Ian (Glasgow, Pollok) (Lab/Co-op)
†Drew, Mr. David (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op)
†Gerrard, Mr. Neil (Walthamstow) (Lab)
†Griffiths, Jane (Reading, East) (Lab)
†Heppell, Mr. John (Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury)
Hogg, Mr. Douglas (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)
†Jones, Mr. Kevan (North Durham) (Lab)
†Malins, Mr. Humfrey (Woking) (Con)
†McCabe, Mr. Stephen (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab)
Oaten, Mr. Mark (Winchester) (LD)
†Rapson, Syd (Portsmouth, North) (Lab)
Spink, Bob (Castle Point) (Con)
Wyatt, Mr. Derek (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Lab)
Geoffrey Farrar, Committee Clerk

† attended the Committee

 
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Thursday 17 March 2005

[Mr. John McWilliam in the Chair]

Draft Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) (Amendment) Order 2005

The Chairman: It is rather warm this morning and those hon. Gentlemen who have not already done so may remove their jackets. May I caution members of the Committee that we are considering an extremely narrow statutory instrument.

9.55 am

The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Mr. Desmond Browne): I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) (Amendment) Order 2005.

The order was laid before the House on 21 February.

On behalf of my hon. Friends, I welcome you, Mr. McWilliam, to the Chair. You were right to observe that this is a narrow issue. I may be proved wrong, but I do not expect it to generate any great controversy. I anticipate that it may generate some searching and detailed questions, but I am sure that we will get through it with expedition.

I shall spell out the two purposes of the order. First, it allows for the implementation of a bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and China to facilitate organised group tourist travel to the UK for Chinese nationals. Secondly, it provides that single-entry visas may be issued to visitors to the UK. Those visas, rather than the usual multi-entry visas, will be issued in certain limited circumstances that I shall describe later.

I shall explain in a little more detail the bilateral agreement with China and say how it will work. On 21 January, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and the chairman of the national tourism administration of the People’s Republic of China, He Guangwei, signed the approved destination status memorandum of understanding between the UK and China. That agreement represents a major chance for the UK’s tourist industry to reap the benefits of the increasing opportunities for outward tourism now afforded by China to its citizens. It will also bring the UK into line with other European Union member states, all of which have approved destination status with China. I look carefully around the Room, Mr. McWilliam, to see if that reference to the EU is likely to overexcite anyone, but I do not think it will.

The Chairman: It had better not.

Mr. Browne: The agreement facilitates Chinese tourism to the UK and applies to Chinese groups, not individual tourists. Its intention is to help strengthen
 
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tourism sectors and cultural ties in both countries. Nothing in the agreement weakens immigration controls in respect of Chinese tourists.

The purpose of such agreements is to allow China to designate key countries as approved destinations for Chinese tour groups. They are necessary because the Chinese Government permit outbound group tourism only to certain designated countries. In practice, the bilateral ADS agreement—that is, approved destination status agreement—means that some accredited Chinese tourist agencies are now entitled to organise trips for groups of Chinese nationals to the UK. The agreement contains a framework for co-operation between Chinese and UK tourism providers to promote the UK as a tourist destination, to organise tour groups, and to take responsibility for groups when entering the UK, during their stay and when returning to China.

The increasing appetite in China for tourist travel is fuelled by growing prosperity, an interest in the outside world, and the emergence of a comparatively affluent Chinese middle class. China already has several ADS agreements in place with countries and regions throughout the world, including the rest of the European Union. The agreement between China and the EU was implemented on 1 September. The UK did not participate in that agreement because it involved the issuing of Schengen visas—of course, we do not take part in the Schengen process. A bilateral agreement means that the UK’s tourism and airline industries can benefit from growing tourism from China.

Other countries have already benefited from approved destination status. For instance, Australia has already received a significant boost following its ADS agreement with China in 1999. I choose Australia as an example because it is often thought of as a country with strong migration and immigration controls. The number of Chinese tourists to Australia has increased by up to 30 per cent. a year in recent years, and the Australian Government estimate that the number of inbound Chinese will reach 1 million by 2013—accounting for 12 per cent. of the total number of visitors—compared with a pre-ADS base of 98,000 visits a year.

The lucrative Chinese market will be an important contributor to the Government’s aim to increase the value of domestic and inbound tourism from the current £74 billion a year to £100 billion a year by 2010. VisitBritain estimates that the number of visitors, boosted by tourists under ADS, could rise to 200,000 by 2010, and to 500,000—nearly 10 times as many as pre-ADS—by 2020, thus generating an estimated additional income from tourism for the British economy of almost £500 million a year and as many as 12,000 extra British jobs in tourism.

The agreement aims to regulate and facilitate tourism from China to the UK by providing a streamlined mechanism for visas to be issued to approved groups of tourists travelling with authorised tour operators. The ADS scheme will operate through a limited number of designated tour operators accredited by the British embassy in China. The
 
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operators will submit visa applications to the British embassy for each member of a tour group. Before visas can be issued, the applications will be scrutinised to ensure that they meet the requirements of the immigration rules for travel to the UK as a visitor under the ADS arrangements.

Although the Government welcome genuine tourists to the UK, we do, of course, recognise the potential for immigration abuse and remain acutely aware of the need to guard against it. There are significant economic benefits to the UK from having ADS, as I have said, and it is important to both the UK and China to have a well run ADS scheme and to minimise the possibilities for any abuse. With that in mind, the agreement has been carefully negotiated over many months to allow genuine tourists to be issued with visas within a robust framework containing several safeguards against abuse. Those safeguards include rigorous ADS visa-issuing arrangements in the British embassy and consulates in China, and zero tolerance and tough sanctions, including the loss of accreditation, on travel agents that fail in their duty properly to exercise their responsibilities.

We are committed to ensuring that we have the correct balance between the facilitation of tourism under the agreement and maintaining effective immigration control. The scheme will be tightly regulated. We will accredit only a very limited number of all travel agents authorised in China to operate outward tourism. Each UK-accredited agency will be selected on the basis of a thorough risk assessment and trained in the operation of the bilateral scheme.

Under the agreement, agencies will be responsible for ensuring the return of tourist groups to China and liable to provide posts with evidence of return and report non-compliance. We will therefore have a system of enforcement operated only by accredited travel agents, which will have to report within 48 hours if anyone goes missing during the tour or on return. The UK visa risk assessment units that we have been developing in posts throughout the world, but especially in China, will undertake spot checks. The travel agents and groups will therefore be risk assessed in a process that will be monitored on a rolling basis through a monthly review.

The British embassy and consulates in China are very aware of the need to administer the scheme rigorously to minimise the scope for potential abuse and maintain the integrity of the UK’s immigration control. Once the agreement has been implemented, the UK will continue to monitor and co-operate with the Chinese authorities on implementation, and will work closely with other EU member states to ensure that we have an effectively run ADS scheme.

As I said, it is the interests of China and the UK to have a well run scheme, so we will work together to that end, resolving any difficulties that arise at the earliest opportunity. In the event that difficulties cannot be resolved, either side has the ability under the memorandum of understanding to suspend the operation of the scheme with 45 days’ notice, and to
 
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terminate it with three months’ notice. We do not expect to have to do that, but it was clear that we had to be prudent and have a safeguard.

The UK already works closely with the Chinese authorities to combat illegal immigration and return those who do not have a right to remain in the UK. During his visit to the UK in May 2004, Premier Wen and our Prime Minister signed a memorandum of understanding on the facilitation of legitimate travel and co-operation to combat illegal immigration. It set out a path of co-operation between the UK and China on issues such as the secondment to the UK of Chinese officials to assist in the identification and re-documentation of immigration offenders and, most importantly, the removal of Chinese citizens found living or working in the UK illegally. That is a testament to our shared desire to continue and increase co-operation and sends a clear message to those who are considering illegal travel to the UK that we will not tolerate the abuse of our immigration laws. I recently delivered that message in China at a high level in government and in several provinces.

Returning to the implementation of the ADS agreement, in addition to the order, we will shortly be proposing changes to the immigration rules to create a new category of ADS visitor to cater for those seeking entry to the UK under the agreement. That is necessary because the requirements for entry to the UK under the agreement differ from those for ordinary visitors under the rules.

The immigration rules provide that individuals seeking entry to the UK as visitors must demonstrate that they are genuinely seeking entry to the UK as visitors for a maximum of six months, that they have sufficient funds to support and accommodate themselves and any dependants without working or requiring recourse to public funds, and that they will leave the UK at the end of their visit. Those seeking entry under the ADS arrangements will have to meet the same requirements as ordinary visitors, but, in addition, applicants must be Chinese nationals and must intend to enter, travel and leave the UK as part of a group. They will be granted a maximum of 30 days’ leave, with no possibility of an extension of stay. Once those amendments have been approved by both Houses of Parliament, we will make changes to the immigration rules to reflect the terms of the ADS agreement.

I should emphasise that the purpose of the forthcoming rules’ change is to distinguish ADS tourists from ordinary visitors. It will not mean that Chinese nationals will no longer be able to come to the UK as ordinary visitors. Individual applicants will continue to be able to do as they do now, providing that they meet the requirements of the visitor rules. The ADS arrangements will exist in addition to the visitor rules solely to facilitate group travel from China by allowing visas to be issued to groups of tourists via a designated tour operator in the context that I have described.

Equally, the ADS scheme will not provide a route into the UK for those who would not otherwise have qualified under the rules. As I explained earlier, ADS
 
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tourists will need to meet the requirements of the existing visitor rules in addition to the extra requirements for ADS visitors.

Let me now turn to the order itself and explain why the Government are seeking to make the amendments. The Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000 made provision for a visa, or other entry clearance, to have effect as leave to enter the UK. Prior to that order, entry clearance was issued by a British mission overseas to those who had demonstrated that they qualified for entry to the UK under a specific category of the immigration rules, but the decision to grant permission to enter the UK was taken by an immigration officer on presentation at the port of entry. Since 2 October 2000, entry clearances have had effect as leave to enter the UK, so immigration officers at the port of entry have simply verified that the entry clearance is valid and in a genuine passport. At present, visit visas are multi-entry, which means that someone who enters the UK as a visitor may leave and re-enter the country as many times as they wish during the period for which the visa is valid, as long as each visit does not exceed the maximum permitted stay of six months.

ADS is a specific form of organised tourism undertaken by groups. It is important that it is properly managed and monitored, as I have taken care to explain. It is perfectly obvious that multi-entry visas would not be appropriate or necessary for ADS tourists. Therefore, we must introduce amendments so that visit visas issued to them under the agreement are valid for either one or two entries to the UK during the period for which they are valid. Under the agreement, it has been decided that tourist groups coming to the UK under the ADS scheme will normally be issued with single-entry visit visas that can be used to enter the UK on one occasion only. Single-entry visas will be appropriate for many groups that wish to spend all their time travelling around the UK—a welcome boost to UK tourism. However, there is also provision in the agreement for dual-entry visas to be issued to tour groups that wish to combine ADS tourist travel to the UK with ADS travel to other European countries.

In those circumstances, a tourist group with the requisite ADS visas can use the UK as a base for travelling to Europe and thus re-enter the UK before returning to China. That approach will obviously carry potential significant economic and commercial benefits for the UK, not least for some of our international carriers. The measures will ensure that ADS tourists can be granted a visa that reflects their travel itinerary, while at the same time enabling the UK to maintain robust immigration control.

We are also taking this opportunity to amend the Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000 to make provision for single-entry visit visas to be issued in certain other circumstances. It is anticipated that the majority of visit visas will continue to be issued as valid for multiple entries. That will continue to bring economic benefits to the UK by enabling the holders of visas to use the UK as a base for travel to
 
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and from Europe. However, in some circumstances it might be considered inappropriate or unnecessary to issue a multiple-entry visit visa, so a visa valid for only single entry could be a better option that would limit the potential for abuse. Such an example would be where a person had been summoned and admitted to the UK for a short period as a trial witness. That is not an especially unusual event because of the efficiency of our prosecution system. Another example would be if there was a compassionate element that added weight to a person’s application to visit, for example to attend a specific family event, such as a funeral.

In those circumstances, a single-entry visit visa may be considered to be a more appropriate and secure option, so we simply wish to make provision for that. By so doing, we are strengthening our controls and further reducing the scope for abuse. I have nothing further to add to my explanation of the order, so I commend the amendments to the 2000 order to the Committee.

10.12 am

Mr. Humfrey Malins (Woking) (Con): I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. McWilliam. On behalf of myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown), who is in his place, I thank the Minister for the helpful way in which he introduced the order to us. In passing, I will remark that I am very disappointed to see that the Liberal Democrats are again not represented in the Committee today; it is becoming a habit of theirs to miss significant debates on these matters.

The Minister was right to point out that the order is not a matter of controversy. Over the years, until very recently, the Chinese Government controlled the overseas travel of the vast majority of their citizens. It was generally permitted only on a one-stop visa granted for family, study or business-related reasons. Yet many from China did travel and that was usually undertaken by groups of about 15 people. They got round the problem of not being able to travel for leisure purposes by spending a couple of days undertaking the stated purpose of the trip, such as business or study, and spending the remaining 10 to 12 days sightseeing. As we know, travel for leisure purposes is only allowed to destinations that have entered into the ADS agreements with China.

There are a vast number of people in China. Its economy has been growing. There is a vast amount of poverty, yet I read that 2 per cent. of the population—25 million people—have the same spending power as Europeans. That percentage is growing rapidly. A briefing that I received from the European Tour Operators Association reminds me that it is expected that the Chinese middle class will number 43 million within three years and 100 million by 2020. Of course, the appetite for travel—particularly for long-haul travel—has grown as the number of middle and higher earners has increased. In 2002, the number of outbound Chinese reached a record 16 million.

According to estimates from the World Tourism Organisation, China will be one of the top three outbound tourism markets in the world in less than 20
 
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years, so gaining ADS has a real impact for the destination market. The Minister is right to talk about the Australian experience. Before Australia was granted ADS six years ago, there were fewer than 100,000 visits from China; after it was granted, the number of visits went up to 190,000 in 2002.

There is considerable potential in the Chinese outbound market, but I am advised that gaining ADS does not necessarily guarantee instant riches for destination countries, of which we are one. I am told:

“The Chinese outbound leisure market is characterised by being low margin and last minute in nature.Competition is generally only on price with the result that most tours stay in poor hotels, travel on poor buses and dine in low quality restaurants. It is expected that most ADS trips to Britain/Europe will be to see ‘the most countries in the quickest time at the least cost’.”

Nevertheless, the Minister pointed out the great potential here for outbound tourists. Over the years, many countries have been eager to gain ADS from the Chinese National Tourist Association. I think that ADS has so far been granted to 62 countries, including Australia, as the Minister pointed out. There is much to be gained from having ADS, and I congratulate the Government on their successful negotiation of the agreement with the Chinese; I believe that negotiations were going on for about 18 months.

I would like to raise a couple of matters about the agreement, which I have managed to get hold of. It is straightforward and effective and has the advantage that it can be terminated by either side if something goes wrong. Under Article 3, headed “Chinese Tourist Groups”, it says

“Members of Chinese tourist groups shall enter and leave the territory of the United Kingdom as a group. They shall travel within the territory of the United Kingdom as a group according to the established travel programme. This Memorandum of Understanding shall apply to tourist groups comprising five or more members.”

It might be helpful if the Minister gave an estimate—he may want to write to me about this—of how many Chinese were expected to take advantage of the agreement in the next few years, particularly what size groups he anticipates, and how many such groups will visit this country in a year.

The agreement sets out that each Chinese designated travel agency can appoint

“up to two persons to act on its behalf as couriers in the necessary visa application process.”

Was that number argued about or discussed, or was it generally felt that two would be sufficient?

I shall conclude with my remarks on the important issue of overstay and readmission. Many people from China have claimed asylum in this country; I believe that China is among the top 10 countries from which people claim asylum. Hon. Members on both sides of the Committee will know the tragic stories that have surrounded young Chinese over the years, which have affected us all and made us well aware of tragic possibilities.

Many Chinese have claimed asylum here, and the question of the readmission of failed asylum seekers to China has always been a difficult one. I think that the Government have been negotiating hard with China. I am sure that the Minister will want to say some more about this, if not today then perhaps in a letter to the
 
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Chairman, copied to us. What progress has there been in the past two or three years with readmission agreements to ensure that failed asylum seekers can properly be returned to China?

There is an overlap because the issue of readmission is relevant to the ADS agreement. It is properly covered in the memorandum, which states that in the case of any overstay or other breach of its terms

“the related travel agencies of the Contracting Parties shall work immediately with the competent departments of the Contracting Parties to help in the return and reception of the tourist, who shall be readmitted by the Government of China. Documentary evidence shall be provided to prove his or her identity as a Chinese citizen for the purpose of readmission. The airfare shall be borne by the tourist.”

The part of the agreement that relates to readmission is quite an important one, because it has parallels in the asylum field. That brings me to my questions, of which I have a couple.

Does the Minister have any fear that there will be an increase in asylum applications from China resulting from the increased travel opportunities to this country, and—linked to that, I suppose—does he fear that visitors from China under the new ADS agreement will perhaps attempt to destroy their passports before claiming asylum? That might put us in a slightly difficult position in the matter of readmission, because the article on readmission in the memorandum to which I just referred requires documentary evidence relating to the tourist

“to prove his or her identity as a Chinese citizen for the purpose of readmission.”

Is there a difficulty and do the Chinese Government have anything to say on the issue of destroyed documents? There is a direct parallel with the asylum system.

I am led to wonder whether, later or sooner, copies of all Chinese tourists’ details—passports, other travel documents or other details—will be kept, either by the authorities in China, before people leave on their tours, or, alternatively, by the authorities here, once they arrive. Such a situation would of course make it much easier to secure readmission under the agreement.

Those questions, which are, in a sense, connected with over-stayers, should not detract from our general welcome for the way in which the Government have conducted the matter and brought the memorandum of understanding to a full agreement. It is much to be hoped that, as the years progress, people not just in China but in this country will benefit enormously from an increase in tourism. The regulations make sense and so does the position on visas. I thank the Minister for the way in which he introduced the matter today.

10.23 am

Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold) (Con): I apologise to you, Mr. McWilliam, and to the Minister and the Committee, for being a few minutes late; I was stuck in a meeting downstairs.

I have two simple questions for the Minister. First, will there be any parallel or reciprocal arrangement for British citizens going to China? Did the memorandum
 
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of understanding contain any such arrangements, or is there an arrangement by which it will be easier for British citizens to get visas to visit China?

Secondly, I visited the Royal Agricultural college in my constituency the other day. It is admitting an increasing number of students from China, and I was told of difficulties in obtaining timely visas for Chinese students to come here and study at the college. Will it be possible for the arrangements to be used for students on short-term courses, or is it envisaged that they will be only for travel? The Minister is shaking his head, so I think that he has answered that question already.

10.24 am

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Prepared 18 March 2005