UK Parliament / Open data

Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, I was saying that guidance will be developed; I thought that I was clear on that point, if nothing else. On the argument that exceptional cases do not make good examples and that the more normal application problem is that which the noble Lord outlined—namely, that of undue delay—the answer is: yes, there will be discretion, and guidance will be developed to meet those problems and to assist in a speedy resolution. I return to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Hylton. Government Amendment 30 will ensure that the earned citizenship clause in the Bill allows for discretion to waive the requirement to have the qualifying immigration status for the whole of the qualifying period. Having that discretion will give the flexibility that we believe the system that we are creating needs. In the case of refugees, we would expect to exercise that discretion where we have the undue delay factor, or others, so the guidance will be developed to give officials an understanding of what "undue delay" means and how to apply the discretion. I do not think that I can add anything else.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
709 c720 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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