My Lords, Amendment 180 in my name and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, and the noble Lord, Lord McNicol of West Kilbride, would require the Government to provide physical proof of status for those with immigration status in the United Kingdom.
I will try not to detain the Committee too long, because the arguments for providing physical proof alongside digital status have been aired extensively in this House, most recently on the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill, when your Lordships overwhelmingly supported a cross-party amendment to this effect for EEA citizens with settled or pre-settled status. At that time, there was no need to argue for such physical proof for those with other immigration status in the United Kingdom because they were already entitled to it—something the Home Office now seems determined to reverse. I will come to that in a moment.
When we discussed this previously, the main arguments advanced by the Government against providing physical proof appeared to be, first, that digital proof was better than physical proof because it could not be lost—putting aside the fact that digital proof can indeed be lost or destroyed, no one ever suggested that physical proof should replace digital proof, but rather that it should complement it; and secondly, that as the Government intended us all to move to a digital-only system at some point, it made sense for the settled status scheme to adopt digital-only from the outset.
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If the Government wish to transition to greater reliance on a digital system, which I can perhaps see some merit in, they should do so only after extensive trials and with a physical backup. However, instead of extensive trials before embarking on this course, the Government appear to have conducted only one, in 2018, which found that:
“There is a clearly identified user need for the physical card … and without strong evidence that this need can be mitigated for vulnerable, low-digital skill users, it should be retained.”
So, there was just one government trial, and they simply ignored its findings. The Government then failed to publish a statement on the equality impact assessment of the digital-only scheme, which they admitted had been conducted. The Minister told me on Report of the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill only that such a statement would be published shortly. That was nearly a year and a half ago. Can the Minister tell us whether that statement was published and if not, why not?
When we debated the issue at that time, I said that non-EEA citizens who were spouses of EEA citizens in the UK and those with other immigration status had the right to biometric residence cards or permits, meaning that EEA citizens under settled status were the only people with immigration status in the country who did not have the right to physical proof of status. Since then, the Home Office has, extraordinarily, decided to tell employers and those renting property that existing valid biometric residence cards and permits are no longer to be considered proof of status. For those who have never read the right to work guidance, updated
on 17December 2021, you do not want to be an employer, because the complexity involved and what they are being asked to do is huge.
The guidance now states that from 6 April 2022, holders of biometric residence cards, biometric residence permits and frontier workers permits will have to
“evidence their right to work using the Home Office online service only. Employers will no longer be able to accept physical cards for the purposes of a right to work check even if it shows a later expiry date. BRCs, BRPs and FWPs will be removed from the lists of acceptable documents used to conduct a manual right to work check.”
Therefore, the Government are stating that their own permits will no longer be considered acceptable documents. Not content with the huge anxiety that has been caused to EEA citizens by not allowing them to have physical proof of their status, they now want to do the same for everyone, even those with existing government-issued documents. Perhaps the Minister can remind us, because I cannot recall, whether people have to pay for those documents. If they do, will they get a refund if they are no longer valid?
I hope that the Minister can explain the reason for this astonishing decision. It is a decision like the one originally to refuse physical proof to EEA citizens with settled and pre-settled status, which I can only explain as being driven by some sort of bureaucratic convenience, since it takes no account whatsoever of the impact on ordinary people, of the stress and anxiety caused and of the exposure of vulnerable and IT-illiterate people to exploitation by others who take charge of their digital status. Ministers in a democratic system are supposed to prevent bureaucratic convenience trampling over people’s rights, but the Minister and her colleagues seem happy to trample over this.
Since we last debated these issues, in October 2020, the warnings about the consequences of failing to provide physical proof—warnings made by noble Lords on all sides of the House and organisations representing EU citizens, such as the3million—are no longer just warnings. They are borne out by real-life experience. The “view and prove” system has thrown up multiple errors, including: “You are already logged in”, “The details do not match our records”, “Service currently available” and, most chillingly, “We cannot find your status”—all to people who had legitimate status.
There have been problems with updating status; for example, because a person has a new passport. One such person reports: “I got a new passport. I sent it to the resolution centre. They took a copy and sent it back to me. Two months later, my settled status is still not linked to my new passport. I no longer have my old passport as the French Government doesn’t allow keeping the old passport when getting a new one. This is very stressful because I am planning to visit my family in France in January. I have not seen my family since October 2020. I am feeling powerless.”
There have been problems with immigration officials demanding physical proof. There have been problems with accessing mortgages and loans. One such person says: “I have sold and I am buying a house. I have had to apply for another mortgage and the mortgage company won’t process my application until I have a share code.
I have still not received a share code. I have called the resolution centre three times and explained the situation. I keep getting told that someone will call me to progress this, and still nothing has happened.”
At the end of last year, the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales and the First and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland wrote to the Home Office with further examples of difficulties caused by lack of physical proof, including
“a citizen being out of work for two and half months … another being denied a crisis grant … a citizen being threatened with being removed from temporary emergency accommodation … a citizen losing out on a number of job openings … citizens having to rely on support organisations to access their proof of status, causing stress and anxiety”,
as well as the fear of what would happen if they
“lose access when this support is no longer available”—
and all because the Home Office has not moved on an issue that has caused such evidence problems.
However, in what I hope was a glimmer of light and good sense, the Home Office, in its response to your Lordships’ European Affairs Committee’s report on 19 November 2021, undertook to look at the possibility of providing a QR code. This could work along the lines of the Covid passes on our NHS app, which provide digital status of vaccination but which, if we want, we can download as a PDF and print out—just as I have today, as I am going to France and want the reassurance of a physical back-up if I cannot access the NHS app for some reason. That physical proof gives us a sense of confidence and means that, if there is a problem with the digital service, we have something to show. It could be an ideal solution to this issue.
I hope that the Minister can give us in her reply a substantive progress update on the Home Office’s consideration of such an alternative digital status implementation, which could allow all people with immigration status the ability to create physical proof as back-up. I also hope that, if the Home Office goes down that line, it will work with representatives such as the3million, Citizens Advice and others who can give real input on the real-life effect this is having. I know that the Minister is a person who cares about the impacts on individuals, so I hope that she can help the Home Office find the way to a policy that is far more considerate of the real-life experiences of people. I beg to move.