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We are publishing this document today so that those affected can prepare. We are also giving people the opportunity to comment on it. Our proposals may of course change before we finally launch the system. We will give businesses and others the opportunity to apply for sponsorship licences from early 2008.
Secondly, I am publishing today the results of the consultation on the new measures to prevent illegal working in the UK, and the action I now propose to take.
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The consultation set out a new system of civil penalties and a tough new criminal offence for those who knowingly employ illegal workers. As a result I propose that the maximum level of penalty should be £10,000 per illegal worker.
The penalty measures we are introducing will provide a more effective means of encouraging employers to carry out proper checks and of dealing with non-compliance.
The results report is available on the Border and Immigration Agency website at www.bia.homeoffice .gov.uk and copies of the report have also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
I am also laying revised codes of practice for employers and the necessary regulations to bring Sections 15 to 26 of the 2006 Act into force on 29 February next year, including an order for the approval of each House setting the maximum level of civil penalty that may be imposed for employing an illegal worker.
Thirdly, I am taking steps to raise employers' awareness of these changes and to provide support arrangements.
Employers will need to know how the changes we are making under the points-based system and the new civil penalty regime will affect recruitment and employment practices.
National press advertising will commence immediately, to be followed in January with further advertising in the national press, trade press and on national radio, and direct marketing to employers in relevant sectors.
The BIA has now enhanced the verification service for employers I announced in May by broadening the range of categories covered by the service.
Finally, the phased introduction of identity cards for foreign nationals will provide the opportunity to develop employer verification services still further and phase out insecure 20th century documentation from the checking regime. I will bring forward proposals shortly on the rollout of mandatory identity cards for foreign nationals.
Immigration: Monitor for Entry Clearance Refusals
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (David Miliband) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have today placed in the Library a copy of the report by Mrs Linda Costelloe Baker, the Independent Monitor for Entry Clearance Refusals with Limited Rights of Appeal, covering the period 1 October 2006 to 31 March 2007. A copy is also being made available on the UKvisas website at www.ukvisas.co.uk together with UKvisas’ response to the monitor's recommendations.
I am most grateful to Mrs Costelloe Baker for this thorough and positive report based on the 713 sample cases which she has reviewed for the period 1 October 2006 to 31 March 2007.
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Mrs Costelloe Baker commends UKvisas for successfully maintaining a delicate balance between good service and adequate control against a background of major changes in the entry clearance processes—dedicated application centres, a risk assessment basis for decision-making and biometric data capture—all benefiting the genuine visitor. She goes on to confirm that the overall quality of entry clearance refusal notices is improving.
Mrs Costelloe Baker makes a number of constructive recommendations as to how UKvisas can continue to improve the quality of decision-making, customer service and complaint handling. UKvisas welcomes these comments and is keen to use these recommendations to drive up the quality of its service to customers while maintaining a high level of immigration control.
I wish to record our thanks to Mrs Costelloe Baker for the work and effort she has put into producing this, her third report as Independent Monitor for Entry Clearance Refusals with Limited Rights of Appeal. The independent monitor’s next report will cover the period 1 April to 30 September 2007 and will be published in the first half of 2008.
Manufacturing
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Jones of Birmingham): The Government's manufacturing strategy has proved to be a valuable framework, successfully developing programmes such as the Manufacturing Advisory Service and National Skills Academy for Manufacturing, while targeting financial support in key areas such as science.
The UK is the sixth largest manufacturing country in the world. It represents 14 per cent of GDP, accounts for more than half of our exports, three-quarters of business R&D and directly supports 2.9 million jobs.
But rapid global and technological advances are changing the economic challenges for manufacturers in Britain. China and India already account for nearly 50 per cent of world real GDP growth. Their importance as a driver for future growth is set to continue in 2008 and beyond.
The Government are committed to helping strengthen the future of our manufacturing sector by supporting companies to embrace new opportunities in increasingly competitive global markets. We will therefore renew our manufacturing strategy over the coming months to address that challenge. The renewed strategy will pay particular attention to opportunities for Britain to lead global markets created by the need to tackle climate change.
I am today announcing the formulation of a ministerial advisory group to help renew the manufacturing strategy. This new group will be made up of a core membership of the CBI, the TUC, the Engineering Employers Federation, the Technology Strategy Board, and regional development agencies together with representatives from industry and trade unions. The group will report to my right honourable
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The Government will seek the views of manufacturers and other stakeholders across the UK in developing the strategy. A number of regional events will be undertaken as part of the process, which will be co-ordinated with regional Ministers and regional offices.
Full details of the ministerial advisory group membership will be announced shortly. This group replaces the Manufacturing Forum, to which I am extremely grateful for its work in steering the manufacturing strategy from 2004-07.
NHS: Primary Care Trust Finance
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): My honourable friend the Minister of State, Department of Health (Ben Bradshaw) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Revenue allocations to primary care trusts (PCTs) will be announced later this year for one year only—2008-09.
The independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation has requested and been granted an extension to the work it is doing on reviewing the formula in support of the revenue allocations, post 2007-08.Given that, we wanted to issue the allocations for 2008-09 as soon as possible to give the NHS time to plan. The intention is to announce the 2008-09 allocations shortly, and it is anticipated that the 2009-10 and 2010-11 PCT allocations will be issued by the summer 2008.
In this context and that of the recently announced three-year settlement for health in the Comprehensive Spending Review, PCTs should still be able to enter into three-year agreements with local partners where these are appropriate.
Regional Development Agencies: East of England
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Jones of Birmingham): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Competitiveness (Stephen Timms) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have decided to appoint the new board members listed below.
Stuart Evans; andBeverly HurleyThe new appointments will all be for a period of three years.
I have also decided to re-appoint Marco Cereste for a further period of three years.
The appointments will begin on 14 December 2007 and will expire on 13 December 2010.
I have placed further details of the new appointments in the Library of both Houses. They
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Biographies of those appointed
Marco Cereste—Marco is currently coming to the end of his second term as an EEDA business board member. He has built a very successful and diverse group of family businesses operating in the UK and Italy which he now chairs. Marco was elected for a second time earlier this year to Peterborough Council after a five-year gap. He has also worked in the NHS for 22 years and is chair of the Peterborough Primary Care NHS Trust and Anglia Support Partnership. He is deputy chair of the Greater Peterborough Partnership and holds a number of other non-executive directorships including Standard Life Healthcare and the Peterborough Urban Regeneration Company. He has been an elected member of the CGIE; this council meets at the Italian Foreign Office in Rome and represents all the Italians not resident in Italy. In 2002 he was awarded the title of Grand Ufficiale, the highest honour in Italy's oldest order. Marco was previously appointed to the EEDA board by a Minister. He has obtained office as a local councillor, has held office as chair, treasurer and secretary of the local branch of the Conservative Party and canvassed on behalf of the party.
Stuart Evans—Stuart Evans is an entrepreneur and chartered director. He was the founding CEO of Plastic Logic Limited, a highly successful Cambridge University spin-out that has won £75 million investment in potentially world-changing plastic electronics technology, initially for flexible displays in electronic books and newspapers.. He has a Cambridge BA/MA, Harvard MBA and a 20-year international career of successful venture capital backed technology start-ups. His business skills include: fund raising, building teams, spin-outs, exits and acquisitions, sales and marketing, corporate governance and turnarounds. He is a non-executive director of Huntingdon-based Pursuit Dynamics plc and a trustee of the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity in Cambridge. Stuart holds no other ministerial appointment and has not undertaken any political activity in the past five years.
Beverly Hurley—Beverly started out in social housing and regeneration in inner city London. Her career then took her to Canada, where she helped pioneer a major change management project for a global gold mine. On returning to the UK, Bev established two more successful businesses prior to joining YTKO, a thriving consultancy specialising in
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World Bank
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development (Baroness Vadera): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Douglas Alexander) has made the following Statement.
I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses a copy of a DfID report, The UK and the World Bank 2006-07.
This report summarises the UK’s work with the World Bank from October 2005 (the end of the period covered by the last report) to the end of the bank’s financial year 2007 (June 2007). The decision to extend the period covered to the end of June 2007 brings the reporting period in line with the World Bank’s financial year and also covers the period running up to the appointment of a new World Bank president.
The report describes the main policy topics in which the bank was involved during this period and how it spent its money in supporting developing countries’ efforts to reduce poverty. The report provides a regional breakdown of the bank’s work and also describes the bank’s efforts to improve the way it operates.
During the period covered, the UK worked closely with the bank to develop the clean energy investment framework, the investment climate facility and a new governance and anti-corruption strategy; and helped secure improvements in the bank’s implementation of the good practice principles on conditionality.
The next report will issue in approximately 12 months’ time and will cover the World Bank financial year 2008 (July 2007-June 2008).
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