Lords Hansard text for 19 Jul 200619 July 2006 (pt 0004)

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department. In particular, we will sharpen the Home Office’s focus on its core purpose of protecting the public through the six key priorities set out in today’s plan. We will establish a new top team with a reshaped Home Office Board and 15 immediate changes at director level, which is over a quarter of all directors. We will reshape radically the structure of the Home Office with a major shift in responsibility and resource to the front line. We will fulfil our commitment to reduce the total size of the Home Office strategic and operational headquarters by 30 per cent by 2008. But we can also now make a commitment to a further reduction of 10 per cent by 2010.“The cumulative effect of these changes will be to reduce the size of the headquarters of the Home Office and its agencies from 9,200 in 2004 to 6,500 in 2008, and to 5,900 by 2010. These changes will mark the biggest shift from the centre to the front line in the Home Office’s history. We will save £115 million per year by 2010 in headquarters costs which we will invest in improving front-line services.“We will establish the Immigration and Nationality Directorate as an executive agency of the Home Office with a shadow agency in placeby April 2007, with strong accountability arrangements. We will establish clear performance frameworks for the operational services of the Home Office—the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, the National Offender Management Service, and the Identity and Passport Service—and hold the heads of those services accountable for performance.“We will focus the National Offender Management Service headquarters on the job of commissioning high-quality services for managing offenders and driving up the performance of the probation and prison services. As a result,the National Offender Management Service headquarters will get progressively smaller, reducing by half by 2010.“We will develop a renewed contract between Ministers and officials, clarifying respective roles and expectations in policy, operational delivery and management. We will seek to reduce further the bureaucratic burden on the police and other partners in tackling crime by implementing simpler performance arrangements for policing, crime and drugs. We are also launching today a radical reform programme with seven strands of change designed to transform the culture, skills, systems, processes and data of the Home Office.“We have today set out a clear action plan to deliver this reform and more. By September, we will develop a full implementation programme. An external audit of progress will be conducted in December and annually thereafter. In the next few days we will supplement today’s plan with two further sets of proposals for rebalancing the criminal justice system and reforming our Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

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“We are determined to deliver a confidently led and well managed Home Office which delivers high quality services that protect the public and better meets their expectations. I thank my Ministers and senior officials for all the work already put into the development of our new plans. “We do not start from year zero, and we will not end up with perfection. But this is the start of a long-term programme for transforming the Home Office. All involved—Ministers, directors and staff—know the extent of the challenge, and that this will not be accomplished overnight. But we are committed to early progress, to demonstrate our seriousness to the public and to our stakeholders and staff. The fundamental change we are seeking will require determination and endurance. This is the unglamorous hard work of delivering good government. That is now the task ahead”.

My Lords, I commend the Statement to the House.

4.22 pm

Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement made in another place by the Home Secretary.

The past 12 weeks have witnessed a series of catastrophes at the Home Office, with daily disclosures of massive failures of policy—from the release of foreign prisoners to murderers on probation, from sex-for-visa scandals to dangerous prisoners being put in open prisons, from hundreds of thousands of failed asylum seekers to massive numbers of illegal immigrants. This has been a spectacular serial failure of government. Each and every failure has serious implications for ordinary decent British citizens. At the very least, the Government waste hard-earned taxpayers’ money and put excessive pressure on housing and public services; at worst, they threaten public safety and national security.

We need to understand why that has happened. The wrong analysis of the problem will lead to the wrong conclusion. The Home Secretary puts it down to the end of the Cold War, and with it the rise in asylum seekers and other threats. However, that does not explain why Britain has had the second highest number of asylum applicants in the world in the past five years, a Britain that is further away from the failed states than any other European country except for Ireland, which is an island and is therefore harder to get to, and has borders that are easier to control.

The reason for the problem is clear. The new Labour Government repealed Conservative laws allowing us to send people straight back to safe countries. Labour terminated Conservative welfare arrangements designed to deter economic migrants, and failed to negotiate a continuation of our right to return asylum seekers to France. They later tried to reinstate some of these, but it was too late. In the next five years we had over a quarter of a million failed asylum seekers enter Britain—failed asylum seekers, not legitimate ones—with almost 90,000 in one year alone. That is why the immigration and nationality department was overwhelmed; that, and a political decision not to strengthen our borders.

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Of course there have been failures of management, but there have been much bigger failures of political leadership. The same is true elsewhere in the Home Office. The débâcle over foreign prisoners and early-release schemes that are not working safely and properly come from the same cause, which was a political decision not to build enough prisons—although I pay tribute to the Minister for acknowledging that.

The Government’s own review showed that they needed 100,000 prison places by 2010, but even after the 8,000 new places the Home Secretary announced today, they will have fewer than 90,000 places by 2012. Again, there have been failures of management, but in a system put under intolerable pressure by failures of political leadership. Since 1997 there have been more than 1,300 new regulations, many hundreds of initiatives and more than 50 major Home Office Bills. That is more than all the criminal justice Bills in the previous century. Some of those Bills were not fit for purpose. That is not just our opinion but clearly the Government’s too. We should take, for instance, the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act: 110 of its provisions never came into force; 17 were repealed before they came into force; and 39 more were repealed after they came into force. This was not the only Act in this state—massive amounts of work for no use whatever.

This is not a department which is impossible to run. Indeed, it has given up responsibility for no fewer than 24 policy areas since 1997. But, under the burdens of a target-driven, bureaucratic, top-heavy approach pursued by this Government, its central staffing has doubled, though I note the Minister’s remarks about reducing staff. It is perhaps revealing that its press officers have trebled.

I finish on a positive note. Some of the Home Secretary’s proposals announced today have merit. The agency proposals for the IND may improve some aspects of its management, but may make communications and co-operation with other parts of the Home Office more difficult. It will certainlynot absolve Ministers of responsibility for its effectiveness. We all hope that the measures announced today will succeed, but even if they do they are unlikely to resolve problems of the size the Secretary of State’s department now faces.

4.26 pm

Lord Dholakia: My Lords, I add my thanks to the Minister for repeating the Statement on the Home Office reform action plan. I trust that the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland, had a pleasant visit to the United States and that she has some better news to offer at some stage.

It is too early to comment in detail since the plans were put in the Library only this morning. Suffice to say that this great office of state is in turmoil. We do not need convincing that the Government have lost their way in the 10 years since they came to power. I do not dispute the context in which the values and objectives have been set out. Of course, the Home Office exists to protect the key elements of our civilised society, but do we genuinely believe that it

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has been effective? We have failed to reduce the fear factor, and despite increased activity by the police and security services, the threat of global terrorism and the fear it generates are still there. We still cannot put a hand on our hearts and say that we have cohesion in our streets and communities. It is bizarre to blame the end of the Cold War for the Home Office’s woes, when it ended 15 years ago and this Government have been in power for 10 years.

One has sympathy with the problems the Home Office has to deal with, comprising prisoners, criminals and illegal immigrants. The Government have for months ignored warnings about the prison overcrowding crisis. A last-minute panic measure to conjure up extra prison capacity does nothing to address the long-term nature of our prison crisis. Unless the Government are serious about breaking the cycle of reoffending, in which prisons act increasingly as a revolving door for repeat offenders, our overburdened prison system will remain under severe strain.

Why is it that the Government fail to acknowledge that at the root of the problem with criminals is their hyperactive attitude to legislation and half-baked media initiatives, with more than 50 law and order Bills and more than 1,000 new criminal offences, as rightly pointed out by the noble Viscount? It is a shocking indictment of the Government that despite five major immigration and asylum Acts there are more illegal immigrants unaccounted for now than 10 years ago.

There is a need for a clear and consistent policy approach, which is lacking. We spend weeks debating police mergers and then find that they have been placed on the back-burner. No Home Office, however structured, could deal with the Government’s volleys of initiatives. Too many high-profile targets can jeopardise the Government’s capacity to do anything else, because they focus all their energies on the one thing; hence tipping the balance of asylum seekers has led to the meltdown in all other areas of the management of illegal immigration.

The Statement says that the Home Office has benefited from the increasing streamlining of functions by the transfer of some policy areas to other departments. So why will it not commit to a separate department of justice and a department of the interior, to enable a more coherent approach to those separate issues? It is extraordinary for the Home Office to claim that it can deport 450,000 failed asylum seekers in less than five years when it is currently deporting only 15,000 a year. We welcome the proposal for a more independent IND, but that must not absolve Ministers of responsibility. They should consider separating asylum, which is quasi-judicial, in accordance with international obligations, from immigration.

In the present time of increased global tensions, we all want the Home Office to succeed in providing security for our nation. The recent revelation has shaken our confidence in the Home Office’s ability to deliver it. Ten years in power is a long time to discover

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and discuss our errors. Let us hope that this new initiative works and that it is a department fit for purpose.

4.31 pm

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My Lords, first, I thank the noble Viscount, Lord Bridgeman, and the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, for welcoming the Statement. It would be my pleasure to outline why I fundamentally disagree with the assessment that has been made of the way in which the past 10 years have been managed. The noble Viscount says that this is a Government in turmoil, as does the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia. The noble Viscount says that there has been a consummate failure in policy. That would be a fundamental misunderstanding of the difficulties with which the Government have been faced, the challenges that we have met and overcome, and the success that this Government have been able to deliver for the people of this country.

I will straight away address some of the factors that have been alluded to. A heavy reliance has been put on issues in relation to asylum and immigration. It is right to remember the facts. Applications are down by 76 per cent compared to October 2002, which was its peak. In 2005, the intake was 24 per cent lower than in 2004; that was 25,720 compared to 33,960. Applications rose by 45 per cent between 1993 and 1997, which was a significant change. Asylum applications were down from more than 8,000 a month at the peak in October 2002 to just over 2,000 in the first quarter of 2006. Some 73 per cent of new substantive claims are decided within two months rather than the 22 months, including the old cases it took on in 1997 when we came to power.

The ratio of removals to failed applicants each year is going up. In 1996, the number of removals was equivalent to only 20 per cent of predicted unfounded claims. That proportion was around 50 per cent in 2004, and in 2005 it increased further to around two-thirds of unsuccessful claims. We removed more principal applicants in 2005 alone—that is 13,670—compared to the last four full years of the Tory Government; that is 12,020 in 1993 to 1996. Removals of principal asylum applicants increased by 184 per cent between 1996 and 2005, but the intake increased by just 13 per cent. We have increased removals and principal asylum applications by 91 per cent between 1997 and 2005. That is not failure; that is a lot of hard, dedicated work significantly to improve matters.

But a reality does have to be faced, because the Government had to decide whether to improve the system so that, in looking forward, we could have a better grip—a system that was faster, clearer and more effective. One of the large problems with which we have been faced is not being able to deal with these applications quickly enough. The 22-month delay that we inherited meant that many people had put down roots and had made commitments that were difficult to disrupt. We have moved on.

So now is the time to look at the backlog. When one looks at the 450,000, it is right to bear in mind that in many of those cases we are not talking about

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individual people or individual issues, we are talking about applications. Some of the people involved will have died; some of them will have achieved their rights by a different means, because they have become European citizens; and some of them will have made multiple applications. So now is the time for us to look at this matter.

There has been major change in the criminal justice system—the creation of the National Criminal Justice Board, local criminal justice boards, crime and disorder reduction partnerships and local strategic partnerships, all of which have benefited of the people of our country, together with the significant increase in police numbers and community support officers. Your Lordships may recall that many in this House derided those proposals initially, believing that they would have little or no effect. Yet we know that they have been among the most innovative and important changes that we have introduced. There was also legislation regarding anti-social behaviour—and I could go on.

I must say as gently as I can to noble Lords opposite that I hear what they say about this Government’s record, but I do not agree with them for the reasons that I have set out. However, it is clear that change is needed, because we are now faced with the need to bring about systemic change that will be better able to meet the new challenges with which we are now faced. Therefore, I very much welcome the comments in support of the changes that the Government now seek to make.

As I have indicated, I hope that we will be in a position, with the leave of the House, to discuss in greater detail the other supplementary documents that we hope to produce soon. This is an important and significant change and I welcome the welcome given to it.

4.37 pm

Lord Tomlinson: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for repeating the Statement made in another place. Much of what she said was fairly general regarding the problems of the immigration and nationality department, but will she confirm that not everything done by the immigration and nationality department should be condemned? For example, extremely valuable work is going on to facilitate the entry into this country of students wanting to enter further, higher and other forms of education. The immigration and nationality department’s work in the Joint Education Taskforce, on which I have the privilege to serve, is extremely welcome and of enormous benefit, both in the short term and the long term, to the interests of this country, and is being done extremely well under the chairmanship of Alan Bucknall in the Home Office.

Will my noble friend confirm that the new system planned to be introduced relatively shortly for managed migration in the education system will not be detrimentally affected, because it is warmly welcomed by nearly all the participants in the Joint Education Taskforce and will not only bring great benefit, but is very much a high-level government priority, as shown in the Prime Minister’s initiative for

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the attraction of overseas students? However, it does depend on the introduction of the new managed migration system.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My Lords, I am very happy to confirm what my noble friend has said. I hope that in the statistics I provided I indicated that I do not agree with the impression given by noble Lords opposite that this system was wholly unfit and, therefore, to be derided. There is much to celebrate. Our work on the Joint Education Taskforce is but another demonstration of the excellent work being done in the Home Office to the great benefit of those who are able to take advantage of that.

Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, the Statement refers to the Government’s further plans to rebalance the criminal justice system. Can we expect a further Statement on that before the House rises and, if not, when?

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My Lords, we will certainly make another document available. The noble and learned Lord knows that whether this House accepts another Statement will be a matter for the usual channels. I assure him that it is our intention to make such a Statement available. The usual channels will then have to decide whether this House is minded to take it.

Lord Waddington: My Lords, have not the Government to face up to the fact that in the fairly early days of the Labour Government, there was a collapse of morale in IND on it becoming apparent that Ministers had little or no interest in the maintenance of fair and firm immigration control? Cannot one moral be drawn from that? The efficient implementation of policy is important and good systems are important but even more important is political leadership, with the staff knowing clearly what the department is supposed to be doing and where it is going. We will not get very far unless the Government stop blaming staff and recognise, albeit belatedly, that the cause of the Home Office’s problems over the years has been a massive failure of political leadership.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My Lords, I must say to the noble Lord how much I disagree with him about the failure of leadership and that this Government have not blamed staff. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary says that even the best staff, if they were working within a system that is fundamentally flawed and if they did so for 24 hours a day, could not deliver that which they could deliver if they had a smooth, effective and efficient system. That is what we are seeking to change. We inherited a system that was moribund and we tried to work within it, and we got limited but good results. Having got the best results out of it, it is now time to change. Noble Lords opposite may not wish to remember this but I hope that they will recall that staff levels were dramatically cut under the previous Government and morale was adversely affected

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thereby. That is a matter of history that one should perhaps reflect on when we contextualise where we are now.

The Countess of Mar: My Lords, it was with deep regret that I tendered my resignation to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal a fortnight ago. I did that because I could no longer bear the incompetence of the whole business. I was giving cases my most careful and anxious scrutiny day after day knowing full well that the whole system that that was built on was flawed.

The noble Viscount, Lord Bridgeman, gave a list of faults under this Government. I attribute quite a lot of the problems to the Tory Party’s removal of work permits in 1992, which led to an increase in the number of asylum cases. Before that, asylum claimants used to be the intelligentsia from other countries but after that we got the people who came over mainly from the Asian subcontinent to work here for two or three years, to build their brick house in Pakistan, Bangladesh or India, and then to go back; then someone else would come over. A whole industry built up with agents taking thousands of pounds from families in order to get one person into this country to work. The agents used to say, “You will have to go through the system but at the end don’t worry—you will not be removed; you will stay”. Those people would have gone back in the past but they now stay.

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