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It is important that we move from a requirement to speak English for citizenship to a requirement to speak English for those wishing to settle here. If we expand it in that way, we will bring many more people into the net. There has been much evidence to show the importance of speaking the language, not least in respect of employment opportunities. In that context, my comments are of relevance to all migrants, not only those from EU accession states.
We are aware that impacts arise from large-scale migration, and in order better to understand them we have decided to set up a migration impacts forum. I hope that it will address some of the points made about the need to work across Government and in a multi-agency manner, and the need for local agencies and local government to be able to talk directly to central Government on such matters.
The migration impacts forum will have a fourfold task. It will consider information from its members about the social benefits of migration and any transitional impacts or adjustment requirements that might derive from migration. It will identify and share good practice in managing such transitional or adjustment requirements. It will bring together existing evidence about the impacts of migration. It will also suggest areas for Government research on the impacts of migration. Therefore, it will address a number of the concerns of the hon. Member for Peterborough.
Mr. Moss: I am grateful to the Minister for giving way; she has been extremely generous in allowing interventions. What she says is good news, but she uses the word “will”. Should I take it from that that the body will be formed at some point in the future, or is it up and running? If it is not, when will it be formed?
Joan Ryan: That is a valid question. The migration impacts forum’s first meeting will be on 21 June, which is next week, at which the rest of the forum’s membership will be agreed. It is moving forward rapidly. We expect it to work in partnership with the migration advisory committee, in that it will learn from the committee’s information and advice to Government regarding skills shortages and gaps, and what we need from where in respect of migration. The MAC and the MIF working together will be an important development in managing the issues raised in the debate and in enabling us to manage migration and meet our needs in that regard.
We have invited senior and experienced public service providers and representatives of other key sectors of the economy to be members of the forum. Their expertise will cover policing and law and order, health and social care, housing—which has been much mentioned—and education. There will also be senior figures from the TUC, the CBI, the Government offices for the regions and the voluntary sector. We also intend to ensure that at least one representative is based in each of the countries and regions of the United Kingdom, and that local authorities are engaged.
The forum will meet quarterly and will be chaired by my hon. Friends the Minister for Immigration and Asylum and the Minister for Local Government, who has responsibility for communities; that is an example of important cross-Government working. As I have said, the forum will meet for the first time on 21 June,
when we will announce its membership. Its work will be in the public domain and we believe that it will provide a major contribution to the important debate on the impacts of large-scale migration on our communities and public services. I am glad that Opposition Members welcome that important development.
We have announced plans for the transformation of the Border and Immigration Agency—the immigration and nationality directorate, as was. Part of the transformation process has involved the recent appointment of six new regional directors, who will have real authority, freedom and flexibility to improve performance and local accountability. That will give local communities a much stronger sense of how the agency is performing and how decisions affect people in their area. The directors will focus on delivering joined-up immigration services and will lead joint working with other services agencies at a local level. That is a very important development in ensuring that impacts at local level really are known about, considered and taken into account.
I want to mention a project that the hon. Member for Peterborough might have referred to in previous debates. Peterborough city council, which runs a new arrivals project, successfully applied in 2004 to the Treasury’s invest to save initiative. It secured funding of some £2.2 million from 2004-05 to 2006-07, so the funding is still current. The project aimed to create a new model for managing new arrivals in the city, with a net saving to the national and local economy, and to deliver long-term benefits to agencies and communities engaged in this process. Nine individual projects were established to contribute to the integration of new arrivals and increased cohesion in the city. They focused on a resource centre for new arrivals, interpretation and translation, information and computer technology, citizenship and orientation training, training in awareness, education, celebration events in schools, and enhanced health and community capacity. We should congratulate Peterborough city council on its success in bidding for that money and putting those projects into action. Given what the hon. Gentleman has said, they have been needed and have served a good purpose.
Mr. Jackson: The Minister prompts me to pay great tribute to the manager of the New Link project in Lincoln road, Leonie McCarthy, who also happens to be a member of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion. She has done a fantastic job. I record for the House’s benefit that we have spent a very difficult six months securing ongoing revenue funding for New Link. We were told, as elected Members of Parliament and councillors, that it was one-off funding that would not continue past 1 April 2007. It has taken the intervention of the East of England Development Agency to continue that funding. I do not want to rain on the Minister’s parade, but securing that funding in order to carry on the superb work of New Link has been like pulling teeth.
Joan Ryan:
I am very pleased that the one-off funding enabled all this to be put in train, and I congratulate New Link on securing further funding. A very thorough process always has to be gone through in securing revenue funding, because public money has to
be well spent and spent where there is need. However, I congratulate the project and the city council on securing the funding and making that provision.
We have implemented a comprehensive regime that provides for the effective management of migration from the EU in terms of access to the labour market and benefits. Illegal working has been mentioned and I hope that the hon. Gentlemen who have spoken will appreciate that we are increasing enforcement and bearing down on illegal employers and illegal migrants. We have increased sanctions, especially for knowingly employing illegal workers. Some small employers just have chaotic systems, but others knowingly employ illegal workers. The significant sanctions will include unlimited fines and up to two years’ imprisonment, because that activity brings great harm to all, not least to the person illegally employed, who is unlikely to have decent health and safety provision or decent wages.
I hope that the hon. Gentlemen will also support our biometric identity documents—or ID cards—for foreigners, which we hope to introduce in 2008. They will make it possible for employers to be more certain about the legal status of those whom they employ, and give them much less excuse for employing illegal immigrants. The documents will also make it possible for us to identify people who are here illegally and/or attempting to work illegally.
In conjunction with my hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government, we are assessing and managing the impact of large-scale migration to the UK. Our approach ensures that migration brings maximum benefits to the United Kingdom. I thank the hon. Gentlemen for their thoughtful contributions and I am sure that the debate will continue, as it is of some importance to our constituents.
Adjourned accordingly at one minute past Six o’clock.
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