It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). It is a pleasure I have had on many occasions since joining the House. Overall, this has been a good debate on a wide range of issues relating to immigration. Members will appreciate that, in view of the time remaining,
I will be unable to respond in detail to every new clause and amendment. However, I would like to address some of the more prominent issues that were raised during the debate.
I know that Members were restricted by the narrow scope of the Bill, but I would like to put on the record that most of the new clauses and amendments, if implemented, would lead to a discriminatory immigration system with differential treatment between EEA and non-EEA citizens, which cannot be justified and is not in line with the Government’s approach of having a single global migration system in the future. However, I accept that the reason for the wording of the amendments was to get them in scope.
I turn to the 31 Government amendments in relation to social security co-ordination, which is dealt with by clause 5. As social security co-ordination is transferred in respect of Northern Ireland and partially devolved to Scotland, clause 5, as currently drafted, confers powers on a Scottish Minister or a Northern Ireland Department to legislate in areas of devolved competence. As is required, we sought legislative consent from the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Social security is reserved in Wales.
The relevant Northern Ireland Minister has indicated that a recommendation will be put to the Executive to bring forward a legislative consent motion in the Assembly; however, the Scottish Government confirmed on 19 June that they would not recommend legislative consent. The Government amendments therefore amend clause 5 and schedules 2 and 3 to restrict the powers in the Bill in relation to Scotland so that the clause does not now engage the legislative consent process in the Scottish Parliament. I therefore hope that Members will be prepared to agree to the amendments.
Turning to one of the more substantive issues raised, the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O'Hara) started the debate around new clause 1. I recognise that Members across the House care deeply about the health and social care sector. I am pleased to again place on the record the Government’s thanks and recognition of the fantastic job that those working in health and social care do for the whole of our United Kingdom.
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That is why we will introduce a health and care visa, details of which will shortly be confirmed, which will provide eligible health and social care workers with fast-track entry and reduced visa fees. To confirm, the salary thresholds under that system for doctors, nurses and a range of allied health professionals will be based on the relevant national pay scales. More widely, senior care workers will also qualify under our points-based system. We will also look into exempting eligible workers in health and social care from having to pay the immigration health surcharge, as announced by the Prime Minister.
It is, though, important that the social care sector moves away from a reliance on the UK’s immigration system to focusing on investing in and attracting UK-based workers to take up roles within it. That is particularly important, considering the impact that covid-19 has had on many individuals. We must be realistic: there will be people who will be unable to return to their previous jobs.
On new clause 1, I emphasise that the Migration Advisory Committee can produce regular reports now. In the past, it has only acted on commissions from the Government. In the future, it will produce a welcome annual report on how the migration system is operating and will also have the opportunity to look at areas of its own choosing, as I explained in Committee. Therefore, I would gently suggest that setting out in legislation reviews that it should or should not do, or asking the Government to do a review when actually it would make more sense to ask the MAC, jars with its idea of being independent. I hope Members will take that in the constructive spirit in which it is meant as to how in future there will be the ability to lobby the MAC to independently decide to undertake reviews, rather than rely on the Government instructing it.
Probably the strongest and most passionate speeches we have heard relate to detention time limits. I share many of the views that have been expressed, but first I want to set out how the Home Office uses detention. First, our immigration system must encourage compliance with immigration rules and protect the public. Individuals who have no right to be in the UK have every opportunity to leave voluntarily, but we must be able to enforce their removal practically if they refuse to do so. Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, we were removing over 9,000 individuals per year from the immigration detention estate, plus a further 1,350 foreign national offenders directly from prison. While detention is an essential part of effective immigration control, we must ensure that our detention system is firm, fair and humane and is only used where other options cannot be. As such, we are currently progressing ambitious reforms to our immigration detention system, in line with several strategic priorities.
First, we are committed to keeping the use of immigration detention to a minimum and to ensuring that all decisions to detain are well made, with adequate safeguards and support in place. Secondly, we are committed to ensuring that anyone who is detained is treated with dignity and housed in accommodation that is fit for purpose. Finally, we are ensuring greater transparency around our detention decisions. We have made, and are continuing to make, significant changes to our immigration detention system, including strengthening our safeguards and exploring alternative detention for those where it would be appropriate. As has been touched on, it is subject to independent scrutiny by a number of bodies. I ask Members present, particularly Members on the Government Benches, to reflect on the fact that the immigration detention estate is now almost 40% smaller than it was in 2015 and is of a better quality, and that in the year ending December 2019, 8,000 fewer individuals entered detention than in 2015. Those who are detained are also spending less time in detention: in the year ending December 2019, 74% of individuals were detained for 29 days and just 2% were in detention for over six months. So, Mr Deputy Speaker, you can see the progress that we have made.
It is often argued, and has been argued today, that the UK is out of line with other countries in not having a time limit. A number of countries—Canada and Australia, to name two directly comparable jurisdictions—have no time limit in place, and very few European countries have very short time limits, and certainly none have time limits as short as those proposed in the new clauses.
In his 2018 report, Stephen Shaw said that he had yet to see a coherent account of how exactly a proposal for a 28-day time limit had been arrived at—a view with
which the Government agreed. However, we recognise that we need to fix parts of the system, which have been highlighted by my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) and my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker). In general, the whole asylum and removal system needs to work much faster and more cleanly, plus more fairly. The legal process can often take a number of years, with repeated appeals and claims being made—some of which are completely contradictory to previous claims by the same person. The Home Office is developing legislative measures to reform the operation of the law in this area. Where serious criminals are nationals of other countries, they need to be removed rapidly from the UK—ideally, straight from prison. This will further reduce the need for longer periods of detention for the public good. Where people have valid asylum claims, we want to be able to handle them with humanity and compassion, which also means speeding up decision making.
I wish I could give the full details and perhaps have a useful exchange, but with about eight minutes left, I am unable to do so. However, I do look forward to working with the hon. and right hon. Members who have spoken this afternoon—they have made their points with the determination I would expect from those committed to this cause—about how we can take forward the proposals to create what I think we all wish to see, which is a system that would be of benefit.