Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank everybody who has taken part in the debate. It has provided an extra dimension to what is in the Bill, or perhaps a different view of what should be there. I am enormously grateful for the support of the noble Lord, Lord Dear, whose great expertise on this subject I value highly. His contributions, both today and in Committee, have been extremely effective. I am grateful also for the tacit support of the Liberal Democrats. We are running along the same tram lines, although they may diverge slightly. I am not so happy with the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, which underplayed the importance of what we are proposing. As I have made clear, we are absolutely committed to ensuring that our borders are secure—there is no difference on that between any of us in the Chamber. What we are trying to demonstrate is that there is a missing ingredient in the Bill. We have had two good debates on this matter. It is clear that the Government are not going to move at this stage. I am still of the view that there is a missing link in the proposals being put forward by the Government. The Minister said that there was a great deal of complexity in what has been done. It would be a pity if all of it had to be redone in order to put into the Bill, in a full and committed way, the police element. I thank the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, and the noble Viscount, Lord Slim, for contributing. This is a debate that will be returned to in time: it will not go away, because it is of such fundamental importance to how we ensure that we in this country are secure, and that the movement of people and the trafficking of goods across our borders are properly managed and well understood. I do not suggest that they are not; I suggest that we can enhance them. I have no intention of testing the opinion of the House today. I thank everybody for taking part in the debate and the Minister for contributing twice at considerable length and for sending us a detailed response. Can he say where that response will go? We have had a pile of paper well in excess of what has gone into the Bill in response to all the points made in Committee. It would be a pity if it was all lost, because I am sure that others would value what has been said. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 1 withdrawn.