Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, I feel sorry for the Minister, as the Government are on a very sticky wicket here. He said that he preferred the description, "a fog of uncertainty", because he did not know what shape the activities would take. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, said, several of us met two representatives from Volunteering England, who gave a very full explanation of the ideas of the design group. I have read the latest document in the Library, and I am grateful to the Minister for circulating another version. However, I still have serious misgivings about the principle. I have heard the noble Baronesses talking in detail. It worries me a little that we are getting into the detail; I do not know why we are even discussing it today. I have misgivings about the whole scheme, because it seems to be in contradiction of the whole point of voluntary work. I said in Committee that voluntary work should be judged retrospectively, as it is rather like a curriculum vitae and, far from designing activities in advance, whether you get the co-operation of the voluntary sector or not, the Government should take account of the work that the applicant has done, not prescribe what it should be. Voluntary work is just that—something that a person volunteers for. It can never be a condition. I do not see how the monitoring exercise will work. Think of how many avenues you have to go down in the voluntary sector. It would be a classic, expensive piece of bright red bureaucracy, with no clear conclusions for citizens. I am not against listing types of voluntary work. I am not against using volunteering as supporting evidence to help towards a qualification or drawing up guidelines. I am against the voluntary sector being roped in to police a scheme, almost as an agent of government. After all, non-governmental work is often the opposite of government. The Minister made another important point in Committee—col. 562 of Hansard—when he said that organisations had not raised major concerns. Well, they would not, would they? They have not been told about the scheme. Only a handful of organisations have been drafted in. The noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, suggested a pilot scheme before this goes into legislation, which may be a good idea. It might work, but I remain sceptical, and I go along in particular with Amendment 36.