Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

moved Amendment No. 22:"Page 7, line 38, at end insert—" ““(   )   An employer is excused from paying a penalty if it is the first time he has acted contrary to this section, and he— (a)   co-operates fully with enforcement officers; and (b)   is willing to take help and advice to avoid the repetition of the offence.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in moving the amendment, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 24. I have tabled the amendments in response to a briefing from representatives of the Chinese, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani communities in the UK. They are probing amendments which seek some explanation and assurances from the Minister. We debated Amendment No. 22 in Grand Committee and, as we are now at the Report stage, I shall refer to it only briefly now. It would excuse an employer from paying a civil penalty if it was the first time that he had contravened the provisions of Clause 15, if he had co-operated fully with the enforcement officers and if he was willing to take help and advice so that he does not reoffend. Members on all sides of the House have made it clear that they deplore the employment of those who have no right to work here. Illegal working can end in tragedy, as we saw at Morecambe Bay. All good employers and their representative bodies support the principle of sanctions on employers, but are concerned about the detailed implications of the Government’s proposals in this Bill. Amendment No. 24 would require the Secretary of State to consult employers before the Government put into place the civil penalty regime. In Grand Committee, the Minister made available a draft of the code of practice. What further developments have there been on the draft code? Have any improvements been made as a consequence of any further consultations that the Minister has held? She stated in Grand Committee that she anticipated meeting again representatives of the various ethnic communities which had expressed their concerns. She made some reference to that earlier today during tributes to Lord Chan. Will she bring us up to date on those meetings? I have been advised by Christine Lee of the North London Chinese Association that she and her colleagues have held briefing meetings around the country—for example, in Manchester, Birmingham, Stirling and Sheffield, in addition to London. At Second Reading, Lord Chan gave a full explanation of their reasons for concern and set it carefully against the background of the development of their small businesses, which are so important to the UK economy. Ms Lee and her colleagues point out that the Government have not had any consultation specifically with the Chinese, Bangladeshi or Indian catering sectors or with any other organisations which involve employers who rely on overseas workers in the restaurant industry. I would be grateful if the Minister could respond to that point today. I am also advised that many employers do not have the time or resources to perform the policing role that they believe is better and more appropriately performed by the IND. The Minister will be well aware of the vibrancy of the catering sector represented by Ms Lee and her colleagues. It is also interesting to note that the most recent statistics published by the Government demonstrate the importance of the Chinese ethnic group in England. The Government’s press release of 26 January states:"““The fastest population growth between 2001 and 2003 in England was in the Chinese ethnic group with an average annual growth rate of 11.1%, largely due to the net international in-migration of people born in China””." This exactly reflects the evidence adduced by Ms Lee about the importance to small catering businesses here of being able to recruit chefs and kitchen staff directly from China. Mr John May, vice-chair of the North London Chinese Association, has put forward three proposals to improve Home Office practice. First, the Home Office should include a non-compulsory invitation to disclose the respondent’s ethnic group when an individual or a group responds to a consultation exercise; secondly, the Government should publish the ethnic breakdown of respondents to consultations; and, thirdly, the Home Office should as a matter of urgency produce the list of stakeholders that it has undertaken to compile and should make positive efforts to include Chinese community and business associations on that list. I appreciate that, as we recognised earlier, the Minister has her locus in the DCA and is taking this Bill forward on behalf of colleagues in the Home Office, but will she agree to discuss those proposals with her colleagues at the Home Office to ensure that this is a continuing process? I referred in passing to these concerns when we debated the Identity Cards Bill on Monday of last week. I was cautiously optimistic about the response of the noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, who expressed an intention of the Home Office,"““to reach out to those groups who would otherwise ordinarily feel excluded from consultation””.—[Official Report, 30/01/06; col. 72.]" But, as the vice-chair of the North London Chinese Association points out to me, the devil is in the detail. If the Government do not know who these groups are and how to contact them, outreach will not work, however good the Government’s intentions are. I beg to move.