Immigration: Home Office Meetings

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

As we know, there is a huge number of legacy cases. This was referred to in the Question we tackled last week. It is a matter of concern that these legacy cases were not cleared up promptly; they are being cleared up now and are being tackled so that those students who have been discovered to be here improperly are being sought and obliged to leave.

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe]

Do the legacy cases not cover other people as well as students? Is the fundamental problem not the one which the Minister spoke about last week: the inadequacy of our ability to search and locate these individuals to try to get them out of the country? Is it not true that the department is currently cutting the number of staff it engages by around 5,000, yet claims that it is going to be able to perform better? Will the Minister please tell the House how it will do that?

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

Identification of people who have overstayed is a clear technical problem which requires the application of all the resources of the UKBA. The UKBA is confident that it can achieve this and has given assurances that it will do so.