Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

My Lords, we had a useful discussion on Amendment No. 10 at Second Reading and in Committee. I do not intend to repeat those arguments, but we should listen carefully to the case that was made by the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, and my noble friend Lady Sharp, among others. I thank the Minister for arranging a series of meetings with her staff, and I ask her to thank her Bill team for the information that they have given to us. It has made the Government’s stance on this clause fairly clear. The points-based system has some merit as against what was available until now. There is no dispute about that. I have always believed that an objective system is a much better way of proceeding than subjective decisions by entry clearance officers. However, we need safeguards even within an objective system of this type. Perhaps I may make an appeal to the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, and the Conservative Party. Amendment No. 10 is not a wrecking amendment and I would not support any decision at this stage to divide the House on it. The reasons are very clear. We want to see how we can improve the provision. There are three areas at which we must look. The first is independent adjudication. We will continue to press for an appeal procedure to be retained, and we will consider anything that delivers a layer of independent adjudication. Secondly, while we would certainly welcome an administrative review, which would reduce reliance on the appeal mechanism, even a review of that nature requires an element independent of the Government to identify the issues that have been highlighted in this discussion. The third and most important area—the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, mentioned it—is the overlap between the introduction of a points-based system and the evolution of appeals. I said that it would be right and proper for further discussions to take place before Third Reading about the points-based system. That would be the right time to analyse the system in conjunction with our request of the Minister to take back our concern and to look at whether the system could be improved. I hope that the Opposition would support that, even if it meant a matter of this nature being sent back to the Commons for them to look again at the case that has been made. However, we have no intention ultimately to wreck the provision or that part of the Labour Party’s manifesto commitment. I hope that the Minister will give sympathetic consideration to what has been said so far.