May I say to the right hon. Lady that that is one of the best interventions I have ever taken? I am more than happy to stand corrected, and I hope that Hansard will correct the record accordingly. That has completely knocked me off my stride, but I was about to say that as a result of the Bill being rushed through, I will have to limit my remarks to the amendments and new clauses tabled on behalf of the Opposition.
Clauses 2 to 5 establish legal duties, which are sure to be unworkable, for the Secretary of State to ensure that every single person who arrives in the UK without prior authorisation is held in detention and then removed from the UK. I use the word “unworkable” advisedly, because the questions that I put to the Minister on Second Reading about where these people will be detained and where they will be removed to are still unanswered.
Likewise, we have no idea how much these proposals, if implemented, are likely to cost. We assume that impact assessments modelling the potential costs have been carried out, but since the Government have failed to publish those assessments, thus denying the House its democratic right to hold a fully informed debate on these matters, we have only the various leaks and briefings to the pro-Tory media to go on. We know from those briefings, along with independent third-party analysis, that the Bill’s price tag is likely to be at least £3 billion a year—possibly more—but the fact that the impact assessments have not been made public suggests a deliberate attempt on the Government’s part to limit the scope for parliamentary scrutiny and obfuscate their own calculations of what the British taxpayer will have to pay. What is the Minister afraid of? Why will he not publish this vital information? Not to do so is simply not good enough, either for Members of this House or for the constituents we represent.
As a result, the Opposition have had to table new clauses that would force the Government to publish within tight timescales the impact assessments that Ministers are clearly sitting on. All that our amendments 286 and 287 and new clause 28 ask is for Ministers to publish detailed assessments on the likely implications of the Bill on cost to the public purse, availability of adequate accommodation and detention capacity, so that we can have a fully informed debate.
Looking beyond detention capacity, we know that the asylum backlog alone means that for some time there will continue to be a need for accommodation to be provided to families who would otherwise face destitution. In recognition of that, new clause 27 would make it a legal requirement that local authorities be consulted as part of the process of accommodation being provided in their area. I know that there are strong feelings about this issue on both sides of the Committee, and on that basis I look forward to cross-party support for new clause 27 as we go through the Division Lobbies this evening.
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On the basis that sunlight is the best disinfectant, we are also calling, in amendment 284 and new clause 22, for the Secretary of State to be obliged to report regularly to Parliament on the Government’s progress towards clearing the ballooning backlog of asylum cases, an issue that is not even mentioned in the Bill, and on the number of people removed from the UK under its provisions. We all know that the backlog is eight times as high now as it was when it was handed over to the Conservatives by the Labour Government in 2010, as has been confirmed by the UK Statistics Authority, and contrary to what Ministers have been claiming from the Dispatch Box. As of today, 166,000 cases are unresolved—only half of which relate to small boats, it must be said. It is an astonishing abdication of duty. If the Government truly believe that clearing the backlog is a priority, I can think of no good reason for them not to accept the reporting requirements in our amendments.
The scope of some of the Bill’s key provisions, particularly those relating to detention and removal, is exceptionally broad. The Government are proposing to do away with virtually all the existing safeguards, many of which they have themselves established in law within just the last years, and which many of our amendments are designed
to protect. Amendment 148 would remove from the Bill the Secretary of State’s powers to remove unaccompanied children from the UK. The Government say that they do not currently plan to use those powers, but if that is the case, what are the powers doing in the Bill in the first place? Amendment 21 would retain the current time limits for the detention of pregnant women, established by a Conservative Government in their own Immigration Act 2016. Ministers have not made any case, let alone a convincing one, for scrapping those limits and thus allowing pregnant women to be detained indefinitely.
Additional safeguards that we are calling for in our amendments include exemptions from the duty to remove when, as in amendment 285, there is no realistic prospect of a person’s removal owing to the absence of the necessary returns agreements; in amendment 6, when the person’s co-operation with law enforcement could help with efforts to tackle crimes such as people smuggling; and in amendment 13, when the person’s removal is not possible without a violation of the refugee convention’s prohibition of refoulement.
Removal to third countries designated “safe” is obviously a central part of the Government’s plans, although no country other than Rwanda has so far expressed any interest whatsoever in being part of a similar deal with the UK. In the event of similar deals, however, we believe that there should be certain rules in place to prevent the Secretary of State from ignoring evidence of the dangers that some migrants may face if removed to the country in question, as has clearly been the case with Rwanda. For instance, amendment 17 would add to the Bill a requirement for the Secretary of State to consult with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other relevant experts when designating “safe” countries, rather than cherry-picking evidence that supports decisions that she has already made. Amendment 6 and new clause 21 form part of a package of new approaches intended to strengthen the Government’s hand in securing the detection, prosecution and conviction of those guilty of people smuggling. Taking Ministers at their word that they are serious about dealing with these issues, I look forward to the Government’s support for these amendments.
As I have said, the intention of most of our amendments and new clauses is to ensure that robust safeguards are in place to prevent the broad powers being given to the Home Secretary from being exercised completely arbitrarily. Amendment 18 would ensure that notices of removal issued to people are in a language they can understand. and with information about their rights and where they can gain access to advice.
Let me now turn to the modern slavery clauses. Let me start by reminding the Government of the words of the right hon. Member for Maidenhead, not just in the powerful speech that she has just made but on Second Reading, when she said:
“Nobody wants to see our world-leading legislation being abused, but the Government have to set out the clear evidence if they are saying that there is a link between that Act and the small boats, and so far I have not seen that evidence.”—[Official Report, 13 March 2023; Vol. 729, c. 592.]
I would add that she is not only one, as we on these Benches have also yet to see any evidence to that effect.
The right hon. Member also correctly pointed out that significant changes had been made to modern slavery legislation in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022—the relevant sections of which have come
into force only within the last few weeks—and that further changes at this point were clearly unnecessary. That is the point we are making in a number of amendments to these parts of the Bill. For instance, amendment 24 would keep in place the definition of “public order” provided by the Nationality and Borders Act, which states that modern slavery protections do not apply to people who pose threats to public order, such as violent criminals or terrorists. The Bill seeks to extend the definition of such threats to literally anyone who arrives in a small boat. It is far from clear that this is what the authors of the Council of Europe convention on action against trafficking in human beings had in mind when providing for exemptions to the general requirement to make protections available to victims. For that same reason, we do not believe that support for victims should be withheld from people who would otherwise be subject to the “duty to remove” that the Bill establishes. Those provisions would be removed by our amendments 288, 289 and 290.
Amendments 291 and 292 are more targeted. They would provide specific exemptions for victims of sexual exploitation, and prevent the removal of victims who are not parties to the European convention on human rights and the convention against trafficking. New clause 30 recognises that potential victims of trafficking may be particularly vulnerable to serious harm if held in detention for indefinite periods. On that basis, it calls for the Government to implement special procedures to fast-track any cases of potential victims whose modern slavery referrals first arise while the person is being held in detention.
The Government have sprung these changes on us without any meaningful attempt at consultation. Amendment 50 serves as a reminder to them that, last year, Ministers made very specific promises not to try to make any changes to modern slavery laws without first appointing a new independent anti-slavery commissioner and consulting him or her on the potential implications of any proposals. That commitment has not been honoured, and amendment 50 goes no further than asking Ministers to keep their own promises. It would simply delay the entry into force of the relevant sections of the Bill until after a new commissioner had been appointed and consulted and his or her views taken into account. While we are on the topic of the modern slavery commissioner, it is of course worth noting that the former commissioner, Sara Thornton, has stated that those who remove support for modern slavery victims to come forward will make it harder to prosecute criminals.
I spoke earlier about attempting to amend the Bill to provide certain safeguards. Ultimately, however, all the safeguards in the world are unlikely to be any substitute for the requirement that measures should comply with basic human rights, as enshrined in the Human Rights Act 1998. The Secretary of State has been all over the place in various announcements in which she has seemed to contradict herself on the question of whether the Bill, if enacted, would be compliant with human rights law. Amendment 1 simply says that that requirement, which applies to all other legislation, should apply to this Bill as well. Ministers should have nothing to fear from the amendment, unless of course they doubt their own statements to the effect that they are confident in the Bill’s compliance with human rights law. As it stands, the Bill is a traffickers’ charter. We therefore
urge the Government to support our amendments and new clauses, so. that we can remain true to the values and principles that underpin the Modern Slavery Act.
Let me end with a few reflections on yesterday’s debate, because I have to say that I found some of the comments made by Conservative Members deeply troubling. Many talk a good game on defending Ukraine and Hong Kong and other democracies around the world from authoritarian threats, but they are sometimes not quite as good at defending their own democracy; indeed, they seem to be focused on undermining it. I am yet to hear a specific definition of an “activist judge”. From what I can work out, it is simply a judge who makes a ruling that the Government disagrees with. I am yet to hear any kind of definition of a “lefty lawyer”, but I think it is someone who has picked apart and defeated the weak case that the Home Office may have put together, despite the thousands of experts it has at its disposal. And I am yet to understand how we define the Home Secretary’s “civil service blob”. Are these the people who work for her day in, day out, a number of whom are in junior low-paid roles, being asked by senior Ministers to make complex asylum decisions because of cuts made by the Conservatives 10 years ago?
I ask these questions because the separation of powers and the functioning of these powers are critical to our constitution and to our democracy, yet many Conservative Members are increasingly sounding like their right-wing counterparts in America, blaming every institution for their own failures, terrified of scrutiny from the media and unable to do their jobs within the law either because they do not understand the law or because they have been over-promoted. I am not a lawyer, and I am not making these points from a legalistic perspective, but I am a democrat and when I hear the tirade of abuse that those on the Conservative Benches hurl at our judiciary during debates such as the one that took place yesterday, I have to say that it leaves me fearing for the future of our democracy.
The separation of powers between the Executive and the judiciary is absolutely fundamental, and those powers and those checks and balances are axiomatic to our democratic values, so I urge Conservative Members to think long and hard before they launch any further assaults on our judiciary, because we do not want to live in a Trumpian version of Britain. We want to live in a vibrant democracy that is based on upholding the independence of the judiciary, defending the separation of powers and respecting the integrity of our institutions.