Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

As I said, the Bill provides a discretion to allow the Secretary of State to overlook periods of absences exceeding 90 days in the special circumstances of a particular case. The noble Baroness makes a good point: how will people know what those would be? I suspect that the answer is in terms of her question and that it will be in guidance, but I shall confirm that and come back to her. I turn to Amendment 47. We do not support the view on the aggregation of two periods with qualifying immigration status, where they are separated by a period in which people have held a non-qualifying immigration status but, again, we have the power to apply discretion to the requirement for continuous employment. We recognise that there may be circumstances where economically productive migrants, through no fault of their own, cease to be in employment for short periods: Clause 37(7) gives us the discretion to waive the requirement in compelling circumstances. That will, however, only assist those who have spent the whole of their qualifying period continuously with a qualifying sort of immigration status. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich made points that will become clearer and more relevant in our later debates. I will take note of them, and hope to respond to them in that context. In the mean time, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.