Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

I agree absolutely with the Minister that if someone is being asked to take the cover off a truck, that is a relatively non-sensitive task which can be done by anyone with a reasonable degree of personal skills when talking to the driver. However, if someone is to be responsible for detaining children for three hours, that task demands a very much higher degree of expertise. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, made an extremely good point in comparing this work with that undertaken by community support officers, the people who have been recruited to help the police. They have been given far fewer powers. As the noble Lord explained, they may not actually detain anyone. All they can do is request that a person remains on the spot for a very short period, about half an hour, until a police officer arrives. The Secretary of State considers that it is well and good in crime prevention to bring in people who are less highly trained, but the kind of duties they may perform are correspondingly far more limited. In particular, the cut-off point regarding whether someone can be detained has always been considered to be very important. There is a mechanism in the Bill by which people can be authorised without being certified individually. Clause 41(4) gives the Secretary of State a power to   specify a class of persons for the purposes of Clauses 40(3) and (4). Clause 40(3) states:"““The Secretary of State may authorise a specified class of constable for the purpose of this section””." A whole group of constables could be designated by the Secretary of State under Clause 41(4) as having these powers. But, as I understand it, they would not require to be individually certified. Again, that brings in the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Brooke. If we are talking about a ““class of constable””, does that include community support officers? Perhaps the Minister could explain that. We have raised a number of serious anxieties in this discussion. As usual, the noble Baroness has done her level best to reassure us that the fears we have expressed can easily be resolved in the detail. However, we do not have the detail or the orders which will bring these clauses into effect. We do not know what kind of private contractors are to be employed or how the arrangements will work in France. I still feel as strongly about these clauses as I did when we began our debate, despite the emollient words we always hear from the Minister. I am sure that we will return to these matters on Report.