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Lord Rooker: My Lords, I am going to take these in reverse order, the reason being that I have a 12-page speaking note on Amendment No. 42 but the nuts are in the last paragraph.
In order to address the outstanding concerns, Des Browne, the Home Office Minister of State for Citizenship, Immigration and Nationality, has indicated that he would welcome the opportunity to meet with a wide range of representatives to explore further what measures we might take to assist in delivering a more efficient and effective service, particularly to students in the education sector.
It is not a perfect service; it is getting better; we are working on it; we have hot lines all over the place; and we have been monitoring it since the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor made his Statement. However, the Home Office Minister of State responsible for that, who, of course, takes full responsibility as the Minister should for all the defects in the system, is opening up his office for a grand powwow with all the interested bodies. I hope that is a sufficient answer on Amendment No. 42.
I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for tabling Amendment No. 41 because it gives me an opportunity to state on the record the Government's position in relation to charges for applications for further leave to remain by former asylum-seeking children. While it would not be inconsistent with our international obligations to impose a charge on former asylum-seeking children whose application for further leave to remain in the UK is not based on asylum or Article 3 grounds, we believe this group is in many ways a special case.
We know, for example, that many of these applicants are in receipt of benefits and support from local authorities under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and would find it difficult to pay the fee themselves. Consequently, I can confirm that we agree that children, or all those applicants who sought asylum while under the age of 18 who subsequently apply for further leave to remain should be exempted from the leave to remain application fee.
However, as we indicated on Report, we do not believe that an amendment to Section 5 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 is the most appropriate means to achieve that. Section 5 enables the Secretary of State by
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regulation to provide for exemptions to the leave to remain application fee for certain immigration applications, including applications for leave to remain in the UK. We do not therefore believe it is necessary to amend the primary legislation and we shall, very shortly, be making an amendment to the Immigration (Leave to Remain) (Fees) Regulations 2003, which I understand is SI No. 1711, to achieve that aim. By "very shortly" I think that I am allowed to say this summer.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
[Amendments Nos. 41 and 42 not moved.]
The Deputy Speaker (Lord Carter): My Lords, before I call Amendment No. 43 I should tell the House that if Amendment No. 43 is agreed to I cannot call Amendment No. 44 on the grounds of pre-emption.
Schedule 1 [New Schedule 4 to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002]:
Lord Clinton-Davis moved Amendment No. 43:
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I am deeply obliged to my noble friend for tabling Amendments Nos. 46 and 47, and with that I am happy to say that I have nothing further to add, except that I beg to move.
Lord Filkin: My Lords, I rise to respond to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, Amendment No. 43, and in doing so I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 44 and 49. I shall be very succinct.
We have listened to the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, and others in the House who are concerned that the term "dismissal" seemed to be inappropriate for judges who are, of course, office holders. Therefore we have replaced the word "dismissal" with the word "removal" and I emphasise that no removal can take place without the agreement of the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
The second concern of the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, was whether the concept of supervision might be seen to imply an interference with judicial independence. In response we have tabled Amendment No. 49, which removes that entire provision from the Bill, as it is no longer our intention that those matters should be provided for in rules. Instead, Amendment No. 44 specifies that the terms of appointment of an immigration judge may also make provision for training, appraisal and mentoring, which was exactly what we wanted to achieve in the first place. I have now made that more explicit. With these amendments, I very much hope that the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, and the House are content.
Lord Clinton-Davis: My Lords, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
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Lord Filkin moved Amendment No. 44:
(i) about the training, appraisal and mentoring of members of the Tribunal by other members, and
(ii) for removal)"
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Schedule 2 [Asylum and Immigration Tribunal: Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provision]:
Lord Rooker moved Amendment No. 45:
"At the end of section 2B (deprivation of citizenship) insert "(and section 40A(3)(a) shall have effect in relation to appeals under this section).""
The noble Lord said: My Lords, paragraph 4(b) of Schedule 2 empowers the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, in the event of a successful appeal against deprivation of British nationality, to direct that any order for such deprivation made prior to determination of the appeal is to be treated as having no effect.
The amendment will confer a parallel jurisdiction on the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in relation to successful appeals to that body against deprivation of nationality under Section 2B of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission Act 1997.
This might be thought to be a minor technical amendment, and I suspect that it probably is, but it ensures that the Bill gives full effect to the policy on joining deprivation appeals with appeals against deportation action and/or certification, as the case may be, under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, whose daily passage I remember even now. The measure was described in detail at recommittal, and your Lordships supported it. I believe that the noble Lord, Lord McNally, said at the time that they were sensible and overdue provisions that should be supported.
I want to make it clear for the avoidance of any doubt, because there will not be opportunities later, that the Bill does not alter the grounds for deprivation of citizenship. It is important to make that clear. The Bill does not have retrospective implications. It is not directed, for example, at Abu Hamza and his appeal. The changes in the Bill would make the procedure for appeals against deprivation of citizenship and the effect of such appeals not retrospective. Any appeal currently in progress will be conducted in accordance with the existing procedure. That is an important point; I would not want people to get the wrong idea. Furthermore, the Bill does not limit the grounds for appeal against deprivation of citizenship or take away appeal rights in those cases.
Deprivation of citizenship is one issue—but it does not necessarily mean that deportation or removal from the United Kingdom automatically follows. Each case will be considered on its merits and separate decisions taken about the propriety of deportation or removal, as distinct from deprivation of citizenship. There might, for example, be practical or legal difficulties
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preventing deportation or removal which would not prevent deprivation of citizenship, and circumstances in which the latter action would be desirable or appropriate notwithstanding the impossibility of the former.
I believe that I have milked everything that I can from this minor technical amendment. I beg to move.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Lord Filkin moved Amendment No. 46:
"( ) for "him" in relation to an adjudicator substitute "it","
The noble Lord said: My Lords, in moving the amendment I speak also Amendments Nos. 47, 48, 53 and 54. These are minor amendments suggested by parliamentary counsel to tidy up the drafting of the Bill. I do not propose to go into excessive detail, but they all tidy up the drafting of the consequential amendments in Schedules 2 and 4 to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
In Sections 85 to 87, all references to "adjudicators" need to be changed to references to "the Tribunal". The Bill already provides for changing "he" to "it" and "his" to "its". Amendment No. 46 completes the set of changes, by changing "him" to "it". Paragraph 20(e) of Schedule 2 changes the reference at Section 106(2)(e) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 from "an adjudicator for the Tribunal" to just "the Tribunal". Amendments Nos. 47 and 53 make the same change to a similar reference at Section 106(2)(f). Amendments Nos. 48 and 54 remove a reference to Section 101 of the NIA from Section 106(2)(m). Section 101 is being repealed by this Bill, as it sets out the old appeals structure. I hope that is sufficiently detailed to be clear. I beg to move.
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