My Lords, we come now to the issue of overseas domestic workers. I very much hope that the House will be content to accept the arrangements that I am about to outline, which represent a considerable change from those we were proposing when this matter was first debated. It is clear that both the Government and the noble Lords who have supported this House’s Amendment 60 have a common purpose, which is to prevent the abuse of this group of vulnerable workers. In his independent review, James Ewins emphasised the need to provide overseas domestic workers who arrive here in an abusive relationship with an escape route from that abuse. The Government have accepted that. The debate is about how the right to escape an abusive relationship is made effective.
The Government have considered carefully the arguments that have been put forward, including by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association in its detailed commentary on the debate on Report in this House. What I am sure we also agree upon is the need
to ensure that, where abuse occurs, the perpetrators are identified. If that is to happen, victims of abuse need to be encouraged to consent to their cases being referred into the national referral mechanism, and they are more likely to do so if they are confident that doing so will not prejudice their ability to work.
We have set out a comprehensive package of measures to address these very objectives. We have already amended the Immigration Rules so that overseas domestic workers are admitted on conditions of stay that permit them, during the six-month period for which they are admitted, to change employer. They do not need to apply to the Home Office to do so. Paragraph 159B of the Immigration Rules already sets that out.
This will be a genuine and effective right to change employers, not an illusory one. The Minister for Immigration has stated that we will take further action to ensure that, where an overseas domestic worker has been referred into the national referral mechanism within that six-month period, their permission to work will continue while their case is being considered—again, without having to apply to the Home Office. This change can be made through secondary legislation, using the powers in Section 4(1) of the Immigration Act 1971. We will do this as soon as possible. We have also already amended the Immigration Rules—in paragraphs 159I to 159K—so that overseas domestic workers who obtain a positive conclusive grounds decision can obtain a two-year extension of stay.
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Taken together, these measures ensure that, where a worker arrives in an abusive employment relationship, they can leave it with certainty that they will be able to continue working, while also ensuring that they are encouraged to report that abuse early on. At the same time, this approach minimises the risk, to which the Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner has drawn attention, of creating a market for criminals in which an overseas domestic worker could leave the abusive relationship that they arrived in only to find themselves in another one.
It is of course essential that overseas domestic workers properly understand how these new protections work and are provided with safe space in which concerns about workers’ employment conditions can be raised at an early stage. The Government have already committed to implementing Mr Ewins’s recommendations concerning information, advice and support meetings. This is something that the amendment provides for, but it is not necessary to use primary legislation to implement it. Our view is that we should preserve the flexibility to decide whether the requirement to attend should be at 42 days, as the House’s amendment prescribes, or sooner, as the Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner has suggested.
Furthermore, as the Minister for Immigration has set out, the Government wish to place greater emphasis on enforcing the obligations we should properly expect of these workers’ employers. We will therefore ensure that these meetings form part of a wider scheme in which it will be a condition of employers’ registration with the Home Office that they comply with a number of obligations, including ensuring that their employees are able to attend such meetings and that they comply
with workplace checks. Where registered employers do not comply with these actions we will be better able to ensure that they do not bring other domestic workers to the UK. These further changes to the Immigration Rules will be laid before Parliament in due course and in the usual way.
As Mr Ewins’s review emphasised, these are complex issues. However, the Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner has stated his view that the Government’s approach is the right one. I hope noble Lords are persuaded likewise and can agree that the House’s Amendment 60 is unnecessary. I beg to move.