My Lords, I shall refer to the applications-in-person fees that the Minister mentioned in his introduction. The idea that an efficient service is being provided in this case will, certainly in Cambridge, generate hollow laughter. I refer him to the case of a colleague of mine who, as a tier 1 applicant in person, has made a consistent series of applications for a personal appointment in order to secure an extension of tier 1 permission in good time so that she can attend important international conferences that are fundamental to her career and to the performance of her high-quality services here in the UK. Despite numerous telephone calls, hanging on for over an hour on one occasion, she was unable to obtain an appointment for a month. However, she was offered an appointment by a person in Turkey for £3,000. The Minister referred to the abuses that there have been in respect of applications in person, but I ask him why we are imposing a fee of £375 on such applications in person when the person making a profit of £3,000 will regard this as a perfectly good bet.
Why are we not improving the service? One thing that the Minister did not mention in his entire presentation was value for money. The service provided is lamentable. The British public, and indeed people resident here from overseas, are not receiving value for money. He described the fees as competitive with other countries. So what? Why do we not provide a basic service?
Eventually my colleague got an appointment in Cardiff. She went there to have her permission to stay renewed. The UK Border Agency office in Cardiff was deserted, although she had not been able to obtain an
appointment. The reason, of course, was that the appointments had been jammed up by those who were illegally making appointments in order to jump the queue, because of the sheer inefficiency of the border agency in managing this process. Can we not say about applications in person that within the UK, for people who as tier 1 applicants are so important for the future of our economy, we will provide a decent service, which we are not doing at the moment, instead of imposing a higher fee upon them?