I am left rather breathless by some of that, as I think some other noble Lords are. Section 25A of the 1971 Act, on helping an asylum seeker to enter the UK, makes it an offence if a person “knowingly and for gain”—that is another issue of course—
“facilitates the arrival or attempted arrival in, or the entry or attempted entry into, the United Kingdom … and … knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the individual is an asylum-seeker”.
Are we are being told that that is inadequate? I am really puzzled by the need for this provision in the Bill as expressed this evening—even if expressed in a way intended to reassure those of us who see the provision as a very big problem. Can the noble Baroness give us an explanation of where the lacunae are in Section 25A and precisely how this new offence will be operated?