Contributions
816 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)There are a raft of methods. I am happy to be directed, but every country in the EU uses the method I have mentioned. It is tried and tested. It is easy to criticise, question and…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)We can debate the methods at length, I am sure, but I think we have a responsibility to have a method. The fact that the rest of Europe is doing it means it is something we should…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I can tell the hon. Gentleman that these age assessments could go some way to ensuring that a 20 or 30-year-old does not end up in a classroom beside a teenage girl. There is an…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I would trust our agencies to use them in context and apply all the other things that they might apply in any given context. This would be another tool that agencies could use, on…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I will stick to the new clause and the age assessments. This is a tool. It would not be used unabated. It is another tool that our agencies could use alongside whatever other…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)That is a safe assessment of my scientific qualifications. We are not saying that this is the only thing that agencies and experts on the frontline, who deal with these cases day…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I hope the Minister agrees that we should be doing more, rather than less. We need to give agencies all the opportunities and powers to do so, with or without the consent of…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)New clause 26 does not specify the method to be used; it commits the Government to coming back within six months with a statutory instrument. How long does the Minister think it…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I welcome the fact that the Government will come back with scientific age assessments that also do not require consent. But if six months is too long, at what point would the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)People who arrive here deceptively claiming to be children cannot be allowed to succeed. We should make use of the best scientific age assessment methods available to us, with or…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)His writing seems to be going quite well at the moment. I do not know that I have the cash for him. What I have described is not asylum. We cannot pretend that the EU’s 27 nations…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)Liberal Democrat new clause 27 seeks to repeal provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 passed by the previous Conservative Government. By attempting to repeal section…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)Well, hot air is required in this room this afternoon, and I intend to provide it. We fought back with the Nationality and Borders Act third-country removals, which helped the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)What is effective? The deal reduced the number of people coming from Albania by more than 90%. If we could get a few more agreements like that, we would be on the way—that would…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)We would want to return foreign national offenders; that is really positive. But the number of people choosing to cross because of that deterrent effect went down by not 10% or…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)Liberal Democrat new clause 29 requires that within six months of the date on which this Act is passed, the Secretary of State should lay before Parliament provision for leave to…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. We believe that the right to remain in this country is a privilege, not a right. We also believe that to be able to stay in…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I aim to please with my tie. The hon. Gentleman can probably attach as much importance to the policy paper as he sees fit, as he does with anything else I might or might not say;…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I would suggest that that is quite a creative interpretation of last week’s events. This debate is about what people contribute when they are legally able to, rather than creating…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)We feel strongly about the measures in the new clause, and we wish to press it to a Division. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.18 Mar 2025