Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

My Lords, I have added my name to the amendment. Before I come to it I would like to say to the Minister that she was unable to guess what was in my mind in the course of the first group of amendments. Perhaps I may briefly say to her that it was the point of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, about competence in English for people seeking visas to enter this country. That point is well known to the Home Office and is extremely relevant to imams of the Muslim faith who are imported to this country to hold particular posts here. It is important because they need to be able to relate to the authorities and to society in general and they need to be able to advise their faithful on how to relate. I hope that that point will not be overlooked. I turn to Amendment No. 8. This is the first time that we come to the important point of a drafting nature about the Secretary of State acting only when he is satisfied. We will come to it again later. It avoids the sloppy drafting about the Secretary of State being required only to think. Having said that, the noble Baroness will appreciate that the amendment brings in only modest differences from what is with us in the Bill’s existing text. The important thing about it from a practical point of view is that it provides a safeguard for what happens when persons who may be vulnerable adults in the language employed by the UNHCR—or they may be children—are found in the course of searching ships, aircraft and vehicles. I am sure that the whole House will remember the terrible incident at Dover when a lot of Chinese people fell out of a lorry having been frozen to death or suffocated. Very awkward situations can arise, which is why a high standard should be required of those who are undertaking such tasks. Finally, as far as I know the Government have given no reasons for a lowering of the standard to be expected of the people undertaking these tasks. So on all of those grounds I trust that the amendment will commend itself to the Government.