It seems a long-standing conundrum of the immigration debate that most of our constituents express concern about the issue of immigration and its impact on our country, but at the same time tend to be very positive about their own personal experiences of people who have come to this country as migrants. I know that this is the case in the very diverse constituency in north-west London that I represent, but it is true in other parts of the country as well, where people’s experience is that those people who come as immigrants are those who drive the buses, work in the local shops and their children’s schools, and maintain the NHS. We are having this debate at a time when we must acknowledge that one of our biggest demographic challenges remains the fact that we have a declining working-age population, and data from the Office for National Statistics clearly shows that we, alongside much of the rest of the developed world, have a significant challenge in maintaining a workforce sufficient to support our population.
So far, this has been a very constructive debate. In particular, I highlight the comments of the hon. Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) about the need for a returns agreement. Professor Thom Brooks of Durham University recently did a very detailed study that highlighted that one of the biggest pull factors for those waiting to cross to the United Kingdom was the absence of a returns agreements with France or with the European Union. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) for the work he has already done with Government in respect of safe and legal routes. As we heard from the evidence we took at the Joint Committee on Human Rights during the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the existence of a safe and legal alternative for those who wish to claim asylum in the UK is one of the defences open to the Government in seeking to treat those who, for example, arrive here in a small boat with a less advantageous process.
However, I will focus my contribution on what I fear are some of the unintended consequences of a Bill whose objective we all support: to end the situation where people put their lives at risk as a consequence of seeking to come to the United Kingdom, facing death
or serious injury in the English channel in order to lodge an asylum claim in our country. In particular, I will focus on the way in which the Bill interacts with some of the positive obligations on our public authorities that are created by other legislation: for example, the Children Act 1989 and all its allied legislation, such as the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, and—as my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) has outlined—the provisions contained in the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
My experience of this issue in local government is highlighted in particular by the Hillingdon judgment of 2003, which concerned the Children Act responsibilities of local authorities in respect of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. That judgment clarified that the immigration status of a child is irrelevant to the local authority’s obligations to provide support to that child, both under the Children Act when they are under 18, and as they enter adulthood through the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and other legislation that we have passed in this House. When we considered the status of children in care, we were clear that we wanted them to enjoy support until they were at least 25 to ensure that they started out their lives in the most positive way.
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When spent some time during my days with the Local Government Association in a room with officials from the Home Office and the Department for Education, it became clear that the Home Office was aware and has always been aware that the challenge that legislation sets up is that when a direction is issued to a local authority to say, “This child is subject to immigration control and therefore needs to go through this different process”, the next step that is likely to follow is that that child’s lawyers will take the local authority to judicial review. The local authority will be found, as local authorities have been found umpteen times over the years, to be in breach of its Children Act obligations if it fails to pursue the best interests of the child and to provide the services it is obliged to under that legislation.
By the same token, I have a concern that stems partly from the evidence we took recently at the Joint Committee on Human Rights from the Salvation Army and others about modern slavery. Organisations that have first responder duties and that in the course of policing or local authority housing, or whatever it may be, come across someone who is possibly a victim of modern slavery have a duty—an obligation—to make a referral to the national referral mechanism so that their needs and circumstances can be considered. Nothing in this Bill as it stands removes that obligation. Similarly, we would expect to find compensation potentially having to be paid, because those public authorities have failed in those duties, despite the fact that they were doing so at the direction of the Home Office in compliance with a piece of immigration legislation.
I strongly urge the Government that we need to resolve that matter and ensure that we do not have a situation where the objectives of the Bill, which most of us share —that is, bringing about an end to the small boat crossings, having a more efficient system for supporting people who come to the UK to seek asylum and removing those who have no right to be here—are brought into disrepute by the fact that some of these provisions inevitably lead to an enormous tangle of judicial reviews
where public bodies may be required to pay compensation for failing in duties where those duties are in conflict with other legislation passed by this House.
Particularly in respect of unaccompanied children, we need to recall that the Children Act says that a local authority takes on responsibility for caring for an unaccompanied minor, not as would be the case if that child arose through being born in the UK and the subject of a care order, but by operation of law. That local authority therefore does not have discretion to decide whether it wishes to take that child into its care. By dint of the fact that that child is in that local authority’s area and is not accompanied by an adult with legal or parental responsibility for them, they are in the care of that local authority. Even if that comes to light subsequently when that child is an adult and a care leaver, they are still subject to that legislation, and that matter has been established a number of times through judicial review.
The Home Office has no legal capacity to care for a child, so even a child who is in immigration detention pending removal by the Home Office will still be in the care of the local authority under the terms of the Children Act 1989. Once again, we need to make sure that we have clear sight of how those duties and responsibilities will be discharged. For example, will detention centres for children be regulated and inspected by Ofsted?