Undocumented Migrants

Debate between Lord Bishop of Chelmsford and Lord Hanson of Flint

Tuesday 16th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

That was another good effort from the noble Lord to try to get me to say “yes” to an answer to which he knows I am going to say “no”. Amendments can be made to the ECHR, and the Government intend to make those amendments to ensure that we will make changes, particularly in relation to Article 8, and provide better interpretation for judges. On the French scheme, removals are imminent. It is a scheme his Government did not negotiate, and one that, hopefully, this Government and our French colleagues are going to make work to ensure that we have a proper deterrent and return people—unlike the wasteful Rwanda scheme, which achieved absolutely nothing and which the noble Lord supported.

[The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford]

My Lords, Home Office analysis of the factors that influence where people claim asylum highlights that the presence of family exerts a particularly strong effect on decisions on the ultimate country of destination. Given this finding, what assessment have the Government made of how the pause in family reunion applications might impact the level of channel crossings?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate for that question. I will certainly drop her a note after Question Time to give her detail on how we are examining the family reunion policy and the impact on children. I am afraid that in a 25-second answer I cannot sum up the detail that I would like to, but I will certainly write to her on that point.

County Lines Drug Trafficking

Debate between Lord Bishop of Chelmsford and Lord Hanson of Flint

Monday 24th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I will help the noble Lord, I hope, by saying that the Government announced £1.1 billion more this financial year than the police budget was in the last financial year, and this financial year is under a Labour Government while the last financial year was under a Conservative one. When I was the Police Minister in 2009-10, we had the highest number of police officers ever. We faced 20,000 police officers being cut between 2010 and 2015-16, and only latterly have they been built up again. I hope the noble Lord will work with us to ensure that the £1.1 billion of extra spending is put to good use. He can certainly monitor the delivery of the 13,000 officers, which will be a real improvement on the ground to help tackle county lines and other neighbourhood policing issues. That is a 6.6% cash increase and a 4.1% real-terms increase in funding, and I hope this House welcomes it.

[The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford]

My Lords, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill introduces new offences, which appear to have no connection to immigration, of possessing any specified article that might be used in connection with any serious offence. What safeguards does the Minister think need to be in that Bill to prevent the needless criminalisation of children? Does he agree that a legal definition of child criminal exploitation might help in that?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate. The legal definition of child criminal exploitation will be in the police and crime Bill, which will be published very shortly, almost certainly tomorrow. On immigration and criminal penalties, this is down to penalties around the supply of boats, engines and materials to ensure that the use of that material in small boats is criminalised, which currently it is not. That helps downstream and we have done some work with Germany, France, Belgium and Holland to look at how we can prevent that equipment reaching channel shores in France, Belgium and Holland, where it is used to transport people illegally to the United Kingdom across the channel.