Nationality and Borders Bill

I tend to give more credence to people on the ground, but there it is.

I share concerns tha...

My Lords, the Government’s position in justifying this and other measures in the Bill rests on th...

It seems to me that the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, and indeed all those in this ...

My Lords, I intervene briefly and for the first time in this debate, provoked into doing so by wh...

My Lords, I have been sitting on my hands because whenever you tell a personal story, it looks as...

My Lords, I am also very impressed by the moderate contribution from my noble friend Lord Horam o...

I reiterate what was said a little while ago: this is about asylum, not general immigration polic...

My Lords, I add my name to that of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, in giving notice of my intention ...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken to this group of amendments, and I thank my nob...

The problem is that the Minister only said, “unaccompanied children”, and did not refer to childr...

Before the Minister replies, I also asked some questions about children and, more specifically, a...

I thank both the right reverend Prelate and the noble Baroness for those points. Generally, in th...

The Minister has made me even more disturbed. She has not said—and neither has anyone in the othe...

As I have just said, I will not go any further than my honourable friend did in the House of Comm...

I understand that the Minister may be unable to respond immediately to the extremely valid questi...

I have said I will write, but to be more explicit than my honourable friend was in the Commons mi...

I am very sorry but the noble Baroness is not answering the right reverend Prelate’s question. It...

My Lords, I am not trying to avoid it; I am saying that that is about as far as I can go. However...

My Lords—

I will not take the intervention just yet. I do not generally make misleading comments standing a...

I am most grateful and apologise. Can my noble friend say whether she expects that, by the time w...

I cannot say what countries we are in discussion with, other than confirming to my noble friend L...

I thank my noble friend for giving way. I think I heard that her concern is that saying that chil...

I agree with the noble Baroness that we need to strike that balance between abuse of the system a...

I am sorry to intervene just when the noble Baroness thought she had finished. She said that ther...

The noble Lord talks about deportation; we generally refer to deportation in the context of crimi...

My Lords, I am sorry, but a whole range of noble Lords asked a question, in different ways, about...

My Lords, I do not have the answers before me, so I will write on the questions that I have not a...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her responses and all noble Lords for their very important ...

My Lords, any anxiety that I may have felt earlier this afternoon about the Whip’s injunction to ...

My Lords, my name is to the opposition to Clause 29 and the other clauses mentioned in this group...

My Lords, I shall continue to limit my interventions in Committee to expressing views that I hold...

My Lords, I have been here for only eight years, which is not long in your Lordships’ House, but ...

My Lords, I add my voice to those of the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, my noble and learned friend ...

My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that it is, as he says, about more than our reputation and no...

Yes; not for the first time I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. It was British lawyers ...

My Lords, I struggle with some of the dilemmas presented by Clauses 29 to 37, for very much the r...

My Lords, if I may intervene briefly, I am not an expert in this field but once the lawyers start...

My Lords, taking up what the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, just said, my lay and na...

As has been said, this part of the Bill provides for “interpretation” of the refugee convention. ...

My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate.

The starting...

I am sorry, I missed my moment; I should have spoken as soon as the Minister spoke to me. I did n...

I did not take it personally. I agree that I did not write the Bill. It would be a far worse Bill...

My Lords, can we have a little less talk about the far right? Some 70% of the population think th...

My Lords, I do not want to get into the question of whether the Bill is going too far or not far ...

Before the Minister leaves that point, I was not specifically asking him to respond to Turkey’s a...

I was going to come to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Rosser. Let me just say a sentence ...

The Minister keeps saying that each state will define the refugee convention, and he alluded to t...

I have an associated point, to save the Minister bobbing up and down too much. I entirely take th...

On the first point, of course the EU sought to interpret the refugee convention for all its membe...

I am grateful to the Minister for that, but will he answer my question a bit more specifically? H...

As a matter of policy, I am afraid I am not going to get into the discussions I have with governm...

I was going to wait until the Minister had finished his sentence but, before he sits down, I reve...

I hope the noble Lord does not take it amiss if I say, with respect, that he makes the same point...

Very diffidently, am I entirely wrong in thinking that, under Article 35 of the convention, some ...

Respectfully, what I said earlier is that it is not the arbiter of the interpretation of the conv...

Before the noble Lord sits down, I was wondering whether he would explain some of the changes tha...

The “may” and “must” point, to which the noble Lord referred, will come up in a later group becau...

I am grateful to all noble Lords who contributed to this group. I believe there was a great deal ...

The noble Baroness’s description of how business works, with an agreement that has lasted for a n...

Forgive me; I stand corrected by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts—as always, certai...

Moved by

Lord Dubs

103: Clause 31, page 34, line 45, leave out subsections (2) and (3...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 103, 104 and 111 in particular, but before I do so, I want ...

My Lords, I followed with great interest the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, in speaking eloque...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 105 in my name and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins...

My Lords, all of these clauses seek to restrict access to the protection of the refugee conventio...

My Lords, I confine my brief comments on this group to Clauses 31 and 32, both of which have been...

My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 105 and the intention to oppose Clause 31 standing pa...

I offer the support of the Green group for all the amendments in this group and express horror at...

My Lords, I want to give practical expression to what those who have spoken, including the noble ...

My Lords, I could simply repeat what I said at the conclusion of the last group: the UK should no...

My Lords, I will be brief. We support the intentions of the amendments. I thank my noble friends ...

My Lords, I am not sure whether it is the time of the evening that prompted that reference to din...

Does the Minister recall that I did not just say that it is about the higher standard? It is abou...

My Lords, with the greatest respect, it is not confusing at all, because Clause 31(2) establishes...

Could the Minister answer the question of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser? What is the problem that w...

My Lords, I am grateful for the question. What is driving it, as I said a few moments ago, is the...

My noble friend is, in fact, rewriting the law. I am not an immigration lawyer, but if I were, I ...

I thought I made it absolutely clear when I said earlier that the court in that case made its dec...

Does the Minister agree that, if, under this clause in future, somebody were to fail—they could p...

With respect, refoulement is a separate issue and, with greater respect, I will deal with it sepa...

I am not a lawyer, so I rise with some trepidation, but it seems to me that it suits the Governme...

My Lords, I set out why we think this interpretation is correct. I am certainly not saying that w...

That may be the case, but all I asked of the Minister was to tell the Committee who has been maki...

I have not been here as long as the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, but, with respect, I do not think it...

Since when has it been making a political point to ask where the pressure has come from to make t...

The pressure has come from the people of the United Kingdom, who elected this Government with an ...

In that case, will the Minister accept that, in a way, and given what we have heard from other no...

Absolutely, we want to toughen up on illegal migration. We want to make sure that people who have...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. In a previous group, the noble Baroness the Ministe...

My Lords, I am surprised that anyone in a democracy is troubled by a Government listening to the ...

I am sorry to keep bobbing up, and I appreciate what the Minister said about monitoring the equal...

My Lords, I am not trying to be difficult here. What it means is that a woman, like anybody else,...

I do not wish to prolong the Minister’s agony but can he clarify something for me? I think he sai...

On the first point, the position at the moment is that you have a reasonable likelihood test; wha...

I thought we were going to have more Q&A. I am grateful to the Minister for his fairly clear expl...

Moved by

Baroness Ludford

106: Clause 36, page 37, line 18, leave out from “Kingdom” ...

My Lords, in moving Amendment 106 in the name of, and at the invitation of, the noble Lord, Lord ...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 107 in my name, which relates to Clause 36 and provides that ...

My Lords, can I remind the noble Lord of the Chief Whip’s reminder of brevity please? We are runn...

In Anwar, as I have said, the Supreme Court approved of that and in doing so again referred to th...

My Lords, I shall be very brief. I am trying to work out exactly what I am being asked to agree t...

I know the noble Lord has listened to a lot of the previous debate. He will know there is no such...

I will address Clause 36 very briefly, which I discussed last week in the context of Clause 11. I...

The idea of people being able to arrive here without going through a third country has been debat...

My Lords, in a word, I see these issues from a policy point of view, not just a legal one. The fa...

I will very briefly address something that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, said ab...

Article 31 of the convention exempts refugees “coming directly from” a country of persecution fro...

My Lords, I begin with Amendment 107, tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, whose ...

If every country interpreted Article 31 as the Government want it interpreted by means of the Bil...

I really do not mean to be flippant. The consequence would be that every country would be interpr...

The Joint Committee on Human Rights recommended that this be amended. There must be good reasons ...

My Lords, this should just be a short question.

I am giving an example of why Article 31, without the amendment, does not work.

I am almost as new, I think, as the noble and right reverend Lord, but my understanding of proced...

My Lords, may I just say that this is Committee? This is not Report. Any noble Lord is entitled t...

My Lords, I really do not want to get into a procedural battle. I was trying to be both helpful t...

Could the Minister answer the question from the noble Lord, Lord Paddick? It was rather a flippan...

I am certainly not trying to be flippant. What I am saying is that we have a refugee convention t...

My answer to that last point is that if that is what the UK Government feel, they should convene ...

My Lords, I have just come into the Chamber but may I suggest, before the noble Lord moves to adj...

Moved by

Baroness Ludford

112: After Clause 37, insert the following new Clause—

On behalf of my noble friend Lord Paddick, I will move Amendment 112 and speak to Amendments 113 ...

My Lords, I have added my name to three amendments in this group. I note that they are all new cl...

Going through the amendments this morning in preparation for this evening, I got quite tearful wh...

My Lords, I specifically support Amendment 117, to which I have added my name, but I support all ...

My Lords, I support all these amendments. I have signed three of them, and the only reason I did ...

My Lords, I think that it is perhaps time for a different view from this side of the Committee. I...

I am grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. I just put this to him: if children are coming to...

I shall go on to Amendment 113, which deals with unaccompanied minors. The main effect of this am...

My Lords, I have been encouraged to say a word—it was only going to be a word, but it will be a f...

My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, for his tireless work on family reunion, bo...

My Lords, it is a privilege to contribute again to the deliberations in Committee on this importa...

I entirely agree about the appalling conditions in these refugee camps and the huge number of ref...

Of course that is right. That is why there was such a row about the cut in the aid programme. It ...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken to this group of amendments. I hope in what I a...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I hate to go over the past, but the whole point of ...

The noble Baroness has twice in my hearing given the figure of 39,000 humanitarian visas for fami...

Going back to the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, first, I did not disagree with his point about reciproci...

My Lords, I thank the Minister, who has given us detailed responses. Some of her points do not re...

Moved by

Lord Dubs

115: After Clause 37, insert the following new Clause—

“Unac...

My Lords, this amendment is also about children, but it is about children who are in Europe and d...

My Lords, Amendment 116 is in my name. I thank my noble friends Lord Shinkwin, Lady Stroud and La...

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 119B and in support of Amendment 119A, in the names of the...

My Lords, I am sure this was not at the top of his list, but the noble Lord, Lord Alton, has remi...

I will not repeat myself—well, I am going to repeat myself just briefly. If the Government saw re...

I think the noble Baroness’s warning is very well taken.

I support Amendments 118, 119A and...

My Lords, I will speak extremely briefly in support of Amendment 116, which for more than 300 ref...

My Lords, I am pleased to support Amendment 115, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, which ...

My Lords, I am not sure that I should support a Liberal Democrat policy this evening; none the le...

I will try to edit my speech as I go. I support Amendment 118, to which I was pleased to add my n...

My Lords, this is the safe-route group and I associate myself with so much of what I have heard a...

My Lords, I speak in support of Amendment 116 in the name of my noble friend Lord Kirkhope, to wh...

My Lords, this is another group of positive measures that are intended to provide an antidote to ...

My Lords, our Amendment 119E, seeks to put a global resettlement scheme on a statutory footing. I...

My Lords, I thank everyone who has taken part in what has been quite a full debate. Amendment 115...

I am very grateful to the Minister for responding to some of the points that I made earlier, but ...

I will probably refer to my colleagues in the FCDO for further information on that, but I shall c...

At Second Reading, we were encouraged to come forward with proposals for new routes and so on. We...

What I encouraged noble Lords to come up with at Second Reading were solutions, not new routes. I...

Before the Minister sits down—to use the convention, although I am glad she is resting for a mome...

Will the noble Baroness ask a question? It is getting very late at night; can we please try to fo...

It is always me.

It is genuinely not the noble Baroness, but we also need to work together —please—to get this Bil...

Why do we need to get the Bill through? Why can we not leave it until after the recess? I do not ...

The intervention was on me—

I am sorry; I did not mean it to be about the noble Baroness.

I am sorry, but this is not the first time this has happened. I have been here all through Commit...

I am very sorry to the noble Baroness; that was not my intention at all and I am very sorry she f...

There are only five days scheduled in Committee on this Bill. This is by no means the longest Com...

I will say from these Benches that, if the Government insist on bringing forward such controversi...

My Lords, I am grateful to all Members who have contributed to the debate and to the Minister for...

I am sorry to the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, but I should respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrab...

I had already begun saying my thanks and praising the Minister for her stamina. I will comment ve...

Moved by

Baroness Hollins

119C: After Clause 37, insert the following new Clause—

My Lords, Amendments 119C and 119D propose a code of practice for professionals involved in the a...

My Lords, my name is on this amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, knows whereof she speak...

My Lords, I support these amendments, to which I was pleased to add my name. I thank the Royal Co...

My Lords, I rise with great pleasure in following the three noble Baronesses who have proposed th...

My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, explained, these amendments seek to ensure that th...

The two amendments in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, would require the Secretary o...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this brief debate. I thank the noble Bar...

Before the noble Baroness responds, it may be that this amendment could be worded to put more emp...

My Lords, I cut my speech rather, because of the time, and I feel that maybe I did not manage to ...

My Lords, if Amendment 120 is agreed, I cannot call Amendment 121 because of pre-emption.

A...

Moved by

Baroness Ludford

120: Clause 39, page 40, leave out lines 5 to 9

Membe...

My Lords, the effect of Clause 39 is to criminalise the act of seeking asylum in the UK, even if ...

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 121 and 122. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, for...

My Lords, I strongly support the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, in what she had to say, but I woul...

My Lords, the fact that I am going to say that I could not agree more with my noble friend Lady L...

My Lords, like others, I entirely agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford. I have to put it o...

I shall intervene very briefly because, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, has reminded us, it ...

My Lords, it is late but that does not make this clause or these amendments any less important, a...

My Lords, it is late but this is an incredibly important clause and set of amendments, so we need...

My Lords, I thank again all noble Lords who have spoken to these amendments. I will start by addr...

I am sorry to interrupt the noble Baroness. The Minister seems to be suggesting that this offence...

I was just going to go on to say that we would be working the Crown Prosecution Service with rega...

My Lords, I have a very simple question for clarification. The Minister said that the current Gov...

I have just outlined our policy intent. I was just going to go on to answer the question of the n...

This is from a non-lawyer, so it may be absolute rubbish. The legislation says, “This is an offen...

Forgive me. I hesitate to rise, for obvious reasons, but I will rise anyway because I am a lawyer...

I take both noble Baronesses’ point but I hope I have tried to signal what the intent is through ...

Would my noble friend say, then, that the person in the boat does not have to reach the mainland?...

I will go on to explain that in just a minute, if my noble friend will bear with me. In fact, I w...

My Lords, I am sorry to labour the point, but may I just confirm that my noble friend is saying t...

I am saying that a person who facilitates the arrival of migrants rescued at sea and brought to t...

I am sorry to interrupt the noble Baroness again but surely it must be possible to draft an offen...

My Lords, people do it for different reasons and that is where the difficulty lies. If we do not ...

I am left rather breathless by some of that, as I think some other noble Lords are. Section 25A o...

Maybe I was not being clear, but I was trying to describe the law as it currently stands. I have ...

I just realised that what I meant to ask was whether the Minister has any comment on my point abo...

I had a note about that but I was so fixated on answering the other question from my noble friend...

Before we know what the scheme is, in fact.

Correct.

My Lords, the noble Baroness has, in her normal manner, made a very good attempt to justify Claus...

Moved by

Lord Coaker

124A: After Clause 39, insert the following new Clause—

“G...

My Lords, Amendment 140 in my name and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and the noble L...

My Lords, I rise with a heavy heart and no optimism to support most strongly Amendment 140 in the...

My Lords, there are two amendments in this group. The first, Amendment 124A, is about offences un...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Londo...

My Lords, my noble friend referred to the National Police Chiefs’ Council producing guidance. Thi...

I thank my noble friend for that intervention. I remember the debate on the fact that it is not a...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply and for the care he took to try to answer the variou...

Moved by

Lord Coaker

125: Clause 40, page 41, line 40, leave out subsection (3)