Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

My Lords, I moved a rather similar amendment previously, on the basis of a letter that I had received from the Public and Commercial Services Union. The union appears also to have written to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and a copy of its letter appears in its 11th report of this Session. It is concerned about a loss of professionalism. It is on that point that I wish to speak. Although I have deep reservations about contracting out to private operators of any portion of what is a very important public service, the desire of the union to maintain the professionalism of the service is very important and could be met by Amendment No. 8. I ask the Minister to consider that carefully, because the union has something important to say in the letter that had already been before the Committee when I spoke to it earlier and in its submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.