Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

I shall make two points. First, I have raised the issue about the convention on the legal status for migrant workers in the past. Having carefully studied the convention, I strongly agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, that it gives necessary protection to one of the most vulnerable groups that lack protection in international law unless this convention is in force. I very much regret that it has not been ratified by the United Kingdom and I hope the Minister will spend the coming weekend reading the convention again so that she can reflect on the reasons why it is a great step forward. Secondly, I want to apologise to the Grand Committee for having made an elementary mistake. It is always enjoyable when a senior QC grovels, which I am about to do. I am out of order in making the apology, but I hope that I may do so for your pleasure. When we were dealing with the points made by the noble Viscount, Lord Bridgeman, I gave a clean bill of health on due process, but I forgot that there is a reverse burden of proof in respect of the excuse, the defence of the employer. I was wrong about that. It is dealt with by the Joint Committee on Human Rights in paragraph 2.30. Therefore, when we come back to this, perhaps I may suggest that we look again at that unfairness because it needs to be rectified. I apologise for being both out of order and for having made that stupid mistake.