Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

We support the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, in seeking to leave Clause 33 out of the Bill. We already require information to be provided about goods, as he says, carried on a ship or aircraft, whether in a vehicle or otherwise. But this clause widens the net to cover any freight arriving by ship or aircraft and allows the Secretary of State to prescribe whatever information he likes to be provided by the carrier within the broad limits of Section 21(3) of the 1999 Act, which are the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences, safeguarding national security and any other purposes that may be specified. What purposes have been specified in the six years since that Act was passed and where can that information be found? That section deals only with the transfer of information held by the Secretary of State in connection with the exercise of his functions under the immigration Acts, whereas here we are dealing with new powers conferred on the Secretary of State for more or less any purpose that comes into his head. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, first, that such a wide power goes beyond the Short Title of the Bill, and, secondly, that it should be taken out of this Bill and inserted in the Terrorism Bill, where it properly belongs.