Passports

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The ultimate responsibility now lies with the Home Office. We have taken that decision. Sometimes in the history of government it has been the case, when there was a problem, that we push it out and call it “agency status”. Here we have brought it in-house to get a grip on it. That is clearly happening.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

May I ask the Minister what the position is regarding records, in view of his last statement? Every time I have to apply for a right of abode every time I get a new passport—I still have only my Australian passport—I am asked to provide all the original documents of my husband’s birth, his parents’ marriage and my marriage. I do not know whether the documents are going to give out or whether I am going to be dead first. Is there no way that these things can be kept on record?

[Lord Bates]

Documentation is, of course, a critical element of this. The British passport is arguably the most prestigious travel and residence document in the world because of the security and steps we take to maintain its integrity. We cannot do that without having documents verified in-country to ensure that we award passports to people who are entitled to receive them. That is a key part of what we are trying to do.

Crime: Domestic Violence

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, I valued the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton. Her comments about the present situation were clear and detailed, and I strongly support her case that there should be a detailed consideration of criminalising this issue.

My reason for speaking is that I was involved with these issues quite a long time ago when I was the UK representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. At that time, when I had to make a speech for the UK, of course I had to seek permission but I said, “I would like to admit that we have domestic violence in the UK”. It was agreed that I could make that statement, and it had a dramatic effect because we were the first nation ever to make a statement in the UN admitting to having domestic violence. All the tiny countries that had suffered from similar things for years and years suddenly felt unafraid to speak out on the issue. That was really quite important and brought it out into the open.

Things have moved on a long way but everything takes a long time to move on, whatever field you are in. What the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, said was very interesting. The one category that neither he nor the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, mentioned was the men who are attacked by women. That is the one missing group, and they do exist. Over tea in your Lordships’ House, someone said to me, “Be sure not to forget the number of men who are attacked by women”. This should not be overlooked. This same criminal law should apply to anyone. There should not be violence.

I was asked to go to Brazil, where they were rewriting the constitution and were writing a section on women. Bella Abzug, the very famous American Congresswoman—the first woman to stand up and demand that Nixon be impeached—was there. She is famous for that; she is also famous for creating the Ms title instead of Miss or Mrs. She said, “Why do I have to define what I am when the other side does not have to?”. She told me that the American constitution had just two lines that covered everything for women, making life and opportunities equal and everything else, whereas as the meeting went on the Brazilians became more and more determined to make it wider and wider. Lots of people were there representing Brazil, rather than the one or two who represented other countries. I made my speech and said, “Listening to this, I get the impression we want to abolish men entirely. That is not what I believe”. Over lunch, the interpreter said to me, “We thanked heaven when you made that statement”, because it was getting to the point where it had become quite unrealistic.

Turning to the more realistic side in Brazil, we were taken to see the São Paulo police facilities; we did not see the prison but just heard about it. They told us that they had special care and special treatment for women who had suffered domestic violence. This was in the early 1980s, long before any such thing was thought of here. Indeed, people came from all over the world to see how effective the Brazilian system was. Fortunately, we have seen a lot of this change now and people are treated better. Particularly after rape cases they were very helpful, and it is a terrible time for anyone.

Those were the days when Erin Pizzey was running a refuge and Sandra Horley was very involved in helping women. Of course, domestic violence did not affect just the women themselves because they often had children who needed refuge as well. The women had to face the problem of finding new school places for their children and it could be very difficult. However, at least there were people to help them.

I turn now to coercive behaviour, which is much better known about today. I think that it is every bit as bad as physical abuse. People live in fear of what will happen. They do not feel that they possess the right to do what they want to do in life because they are controlled by others. That is not good because fear can destroy people’s lives. We have to deal with this issue. I know that in March 2013 the Home Office changed the definition of coercive behaviour, but the law has not been changed to match it. That is what is being asked for in this Question, and I am very much in favour of it.

In many ways these issues have been in the public domain for longer than I had realised. Dickens wrote about how abusive Bill Sikes was to Nancy in Oliver Twist, so these things are on the record, even though they were not really topics for public discussion. I have heard that a major Home Office conference is to be held on 22 July that will cover female genital mutilation, forced early marriage and domestic violence. It is to the credit of Theresa May that she is bringing forward such a conference, which I think will be welcomed by everyone.

I end by saying that there is a time lag between awareness and action. We are all aware of these things, and now it is time to take action.

Crime: Clare’s Law

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

My Lords, I am aware of the figures that the noble Baroness has produced. They are indeed horrendous. I willingly pay tribute to Michael Brown. I hope that the actions the Home Secretary has taken today are a worthy tribute to the suffering that Clare Wood endured. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness’s commitment to this issue and share her interest in ensuring that these projects are a success. The Government have ring-fenced £40 million of funding over the lifetime of this Parliament to help front-line organisations tackle violence against women and girls. We see this resource being available to fund both these initiatives and I hope that we all join in wishing them great success.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that we are taking part in a study, which this morning had a meeting in the House of Commons and heard from many witnesses? In particular, I mention Professor Liz Kelly, who has written a paper on this very important subject. It brought out that one of the worst situations is coercive control, which is the type of thing we have had with the slavery issue recently. Apparently the most dangerous point with coercive control is when the person who has been intimidated or brainwashed—all sorts of possible things have been used—says that she is going to go. That is apparently when the police record quite a number of deaths. Will my noble friend ensure that Professor Liz Kelly’s paper is taken into consideration in any further studies?

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

I happily give my noble friend that assurance. Indeed, I look forward to hearing more from her on this issue. Violence against women is often a matter of revenge. I believe in a society where people should be free to enter into emotional commitments to others and equally free to leave them. Violence should never be used to enforce a relationship.

Immigration: UK Citizenship and Nationality

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, I feel that I am a strange person to be speaking in this debate because I am not a British citizen. I have thought about it a few times, but in the days when I thought about it the Australians would have revoked my Australian citizenship. Because I was here before the immigration laws, I had the right of abode. However, I can tell you that that right has become a bit of a nightmare, because you have to renew it every time you renew your passport. You are required to send in an unbelievable number of documents, all in their original form, including my husband’s parents’ birth certificates, his birth certificate, our marriage certificate—there is a whole list—and they must all be in their original form. Some of them are now so old that if I live long enough to get another passport, I am not sure that they will be in any state to be sent to the office.

I have spoken to the department about this. The man dealing with it is in Liverpool. He said, “I can’t imagine why we have to have originals every time”. Clearly they do not want someone forging all the documents, but Germaine Greer told me that when they told her that they required 10 documents a year and that she had been here for many years and therefore needed 40 documents, she told them that she could not produce 40 originals, and in the end gave up and became British. I thought that it was interesting that that seemed to be the easiest way out; but surely it would be easier to say, “Once we have a document, we will keep an official record of it”. I can see that you have to be sure that someone is not forging documents, but these things should be simple and they are not.

Nationality is an interesting thing. I have helped some people here get British nationality. One woman from Colombia had been illegally here for 27 years. In the end, we were very fortunate. Originally she came legally as an au pair. You did not have to have a visa but came as a guest of the people who invited you to come and be part of their family. I know that well because at one time I ran an au pair agency. I was at home with my own children and could not get anyone to help, so I set up the agency and discovered that all you had to do was invite someone. This woman was fortunate because in her then illegal years she had looked after the parents of one of the very well known Lords here. She told me about this man—“Sir” someone—but it never occurred to me that he was a famous Law Lord until she brought a photo. Then we were able to get going, he supported her, and she got her right to be here. She legally stayed here for five years 20 years ago. However, the five years have to run since you received your permit to be here. Now she has two more years to go, and I want to live so long to help her.

She resents terribly, and so do a lot of other people, all the people who come in, supposedly as asylum seekers. They go to the same English classes and are not interested in learning anything at all. All they want is to be here. A lot of people who want to become British citizens feel cheated because they feel there are quick ways in which people are getting in without any of the bookwork that was referred to—learning.

Now, my right of abode, apart from anything else, costs more than my Australian passport. The other situation I found through the woman I helped is that of moving the goalposts. I have raised this at meetings that Mrs May has attended. You arrive here at a time when there is four years or six years to wait or whatever it is. By the time you present yourself, it has moved up two more years. By the time you have waited another two years before you can apply, it has moved up another two years. So in cases that I came across, applicants from Latin America had found that the goalposts had moved three or four times. That does seem to be very unfair.

A few other matters should be mentioned because time is very short, such as retention of passports. I know that there is a big backlog but people who are here on specialist visas are highly talented people who we want. Their passports are taken to some department and hung on to up to for a year before they are returned. No matter how big the backlog, something has to be done about that. If they need to go abroad during that time, they have to apply to get their passports back. They can get them back, but then they go back to the bottom of the queue and start another year. It should be possible to have the equivalent of what they used to give out in cinemas, a thing that let you reserve your place, and you could leave and go back in. I think there are so many departments all involved in citizenship—the Border Force, the Passport Office, the Post Office for your passports—and so many tests, many of which are quite unrealistic. It is time that people looked at the actual wording of these forms and simplified them so that people could understand the procedure and the ball game did not change by moving the goalposts.

Citizenship Test

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

I am sure that the House is very reassured by that.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, I have been in this country for almost 60 years. I could not possibly pass that test, although I thought I had assimilated a bit of Britishness while I have been here. My accent remains unchanged, of course. I am concerned about more serious situations in immigration, raised by the Front Bench opposite. With the help of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, a former Lord Chief Justice, we have managed to obtain a right to be here for someone who has been here now for three years. She was here legally for five years, having come here as an au pair, then illegally for about 20 years. Now she has to wait, and after five years she can apply for citizenship. During that investigation, I discovered that the problem is that when you arrive, you are told that you have to have been here for six years. When you get to five and a half years, they change it to eight years. When you get to seven and a half years, they change it to add another two years. Is it not time that we looked at the prospect of relating the number of years you have to wait to what was in force at that time of your arrival?

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

My noble friend has illustrated that the rules on these matters are complex, but we do keep them under review. We really want to facilitate the opportunity for people who want to make a life in this country to settle and to achieve citizenship. That is the purpose of the test.

Alcohol: Strategy

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Tuesday 27th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I cannot give any commitment about when and how we will do that. Obviously, primary legislation will be necessary to bring forward a minimum unit price. However, I can make it clear that the Prime Minister has given his own personal commitment that we will bring in a minimum unit price. That is why we are consulting on what the proposed and proper level should be.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, can the Minister tell me what the situation is? It is reported in the press that a minimum unit price might be illegal under European Commission rules as being anti-competitive. Does he have any views on that? What procedures would we have to follow to deal with that? We are very concerned on health grounds and support the idea.

Immigration: Home Office Procedures

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will review the procedures and paperwork required by the Home Office from applicants for immigration or residential status.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones)]

My Lords, online forms containing guidance have already been introduced on the UK Border Agency website to make things easier for applicants. Next year, tier 4 student applicants, which comprise the largest category, will be able to create their own customer account to assist them to complete their online application, pay for it and view its progress. All immigration application forms will be available online by 2015, and the aim is to simplify and clarify application procedures in all categories.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

I thank the Minister for that reply. My question relates to long-term residency in the UK, and I declare an interest in that I have had the right of abode for many years and have been here for 50 years. Why were new regulations introduced in 2006 requiring everyone to resubmit documents? In 1985 I had a letter saying that no repeat would ever be required, but in 2009 I was told that I must resubmit all originals. I am getting the same complaint from many people. Will the Minister also comment on the Canadian lady who, just this week, after 60 years in the UK, was stopped at the airport as an illegal immigrant?

[Baroness Neville-Jones]

My Lords, the aim of the 2006 regulations, which were brought into effect by our predecessors, appears to have been to cut down on fraudulent claims to the right of abode by ensuring that the validity of the certificate of entitlement which applicants have to have was limited to the lifetime of the passport to which it was attached. Requiring new certificates of entitlement enables a further check on the genuineness of the eligibility to take place. As regards the Canadian lady, on the basis of the press reports—and I have no other information—it would appear that this lady, who was allowed into the country, will be able to claim her right of citizenship through descent. I think that she will have no problem in doing that, and of course she will not have to pay.