London Metropolitan University

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

That is precisely why we have set up the taskforce, which will help those individual students—of course there will be genuine students: some will be in the middle of their courses and some will be about to arrive for them—and ensure that, as fast as possible, they can have courses of equivalent value and that the credits they have built up can be carried over to their new courses, so that there is no unfairness to those genuine individual students.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

I warmly welcome my hon. Friend’s statement and endorse the decision of the UKBA. Although there will be genuine foreign students who are concerned and anxious, does he agree that there is only one institution to blame for their predicament, and that is London Met university?

[Damian Green]

I agree with my hon. Friend that the vast majority of universities have been able to cope with the recent growth in foreign students without any problems. We have had to suspend the licence of two other universities since we started effective enforcement action. Both universities managed quickly to resolve the situation and ensure that they could continue as sponsors. That is not the case with London Metropolitan, where the situation is significantly more serious than any previous case we have seen. Indeed, the institution itself must bear the responsibility for what happened in this case.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

6. What steps she is taking under immigration rules to promote better integration.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

16. What steps she is taking under immigration rules to promote better integration.

[The Minister for Immigration (Damian Green)]

Our immigration reforms will return migration to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands, reducing pressures on communities. Changes to family immigration rules will ensure that migrants are not a burden on the taxpayer but can speak English and pay their way, and a new “Life in the UK” test will have British history and culture at its heart. All of that will help ensure that migrants are better able to integrate in the UK.

[Damian Green]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes an entirely valid point, because most immigrants come here to work and we should encourage them to do so. That is why our new “Life in the UK” test booklet will concentrate more on British history, British values and great people in British history and rather less than the previous Government’s version did on how to claim benefits.

[Sajid Javid]

When my parents left their homeland in the 1960s to settle in the UK, they brought with them a deep respect and love for Britain. Sadly, too few migrants share that approach today. I therefore welcome the changes to the “Life in the UK” test that my hon. Friend has outlined. Does he agree that they will help to underline the importance of immigrants learning the English language?

[Damian Green]

That is absolutely right. It is obvious that it is easier for someone to make a success of their life in a new country if they can speak the language properly. That is why we have increased the English requirements across the board for migrants who intend to settle here. That will help them not only to integrate better in the wider community but to make a success of their own lives. Opposition Members who campaign against the changes are letting down future generations of migrants to this country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Monday 21st May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

Yes, I am happy to give my hon. Friend the assurance not only that we will do that, but that we already are doing it. We have instituted a pilot scheme for extended interviewing in some countries, showing significant positive results in ensuring that people cannot get on a plane to this country if they do not have the right to do so.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

6. If she will bring forward proposals to amend the immigration rules to prevent misuse of article 8 of the European convention on human rights.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

By this summer, we will have in place new immigration rules, which will help to end abuse of article 8. The Government are considering responses to the public consultation on changes to the family migration rules carried out last year, and expect to announce the results shortly. This will include changes relating to article 8.

[Sajid Javid]

The UK Border Agency recently reported that almost 4,000 foreign criminals are free to walk our streets. My Bromsgrove constituents know that it was the previous Labour Government who put the rights of criminals before the rights of ordinary law-abiding citizens. What steps does my right hon. Friend plan to take to start deporting these criminals?

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend rightly raises an issue that causes considerable concern to members of the public. We have changed the way in which we deal with foreign national offenders. We now start deportation action 18 months before the end of the sentence, and in order to speed up the process we are chartering more flights to remove foreign offenders, but we are indeed having to make good a system that was of course put in place by the last Labour Government. When we deal with article 8, we will ensure that it provides less reason for people to claim that they need to remain here in the UK.

Alcohol Strategy

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Friday 23rd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I welcome the support that the hon. Lady is giving to the thrust of the alcohol strategy. We have based the assumptions that are in the strategy on a minimum unit price of 40p. I am aware that there are those out there who say that it should be higher. We will be consulting, and obviously we will look at the results of that consultation when we make a final decision on the unit price.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the statement by my right hon. Friend. She has talked about the changes in licensing laws made by the previous Government, which incidentally I think were well reported in the press before they were reported to this House. Can she perhaps expand on the impact that those licensing changes had on the binge-drinking culture?

[Mrs May]

I thank my hon. Friend for that. He is absolutely right. We were promised that the legislation would suddenly open an era in which people would sit casually in the streets, drinking responsibly. In fact, what we saw was an enormously increased burden on the police, who had to deal with the late-night and early-hours licences that were allowed as a result of Labour’s Licensing Act—that is why the police welcome the steps that we are taking today—and of course that just helped to fuel that binge-drinking culture which has caused so many problems in our town centres and high streets.

I apologise; the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) previously mentioned advertising. In fact, we are looking at the issue of advertising and display of alcohol as part of the responsibility deal.

Border Checks Summer 2011

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The hon. Gentleman’s constituents will want to know what is happening now, and what happened this summer. His Government and his Home Secretary cannot answer the questions. They cannot even tell us more about the pilots, or the decisions they thought they were taking—what they thought they were signing up to.

We know that the Home Secretary thought that in theory her pilot covered European citizens, but in practice it routinely did so. That is a funny definition of a pilot. It was not just one Thursday afternoon a month in Luton; it was every airport and potentially every European citizen. Millions of them entered Britain this summer, and they formed the majority of foreign citizens entering the country, so how many of them missed the full checks? How many of them did the Home Secretary expect to face reduced checks when she gave the go-ahead for this so-called pilot earlier this year?

We know, too, from the UK Border Agency’s internal minutes this summer that there was a reference to

“mixed views on the summer pressures work, including the concern that not checking children on the watch list may facilitate child trafficking”.

Officials raised that concern within the UKBA, and I raised it with the Home Secretary on Monday. She will know that the House has repeatedly expressed deep concern about people trafficking across Europe, so did she even consider those risks before she took her decision?

The intention of Labour Ministers and, I had always understood, Conservative Ministers, too, was to strengthen our border checks year on year. We all agree that there were difficulties in the past, but I thought that we all agreed, too, on the remedy—that we should roll out e-Borders, biometrics and new technology; make sure that enough staff were in place so that we could increase checks and cover everybody properly by counting people in and out; and every year extend the technology and strengthen the checks.

This Home Secretary and this Home Office made a conscious decision to turn the clock back and to reduce the checks. What they put in place this summer was a new regime of lower not higher checks, using less rather than more technology.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

rose—

[Yvette Cooper]

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman if he can tell me whether he believes we should strengthen and extend biometric tests, rather than reduce them.

[Sajid Javid]

I thank the right hon. Lady for giving way. In 2008, the then Government reduced warnings index checks on European economic area nationals, children and adults, on Eurostar services, and they did so on 100 separate occasions between 2008 and 2010. She was a senior member of the previous Government, so can she tell the House whether she supported that measure?

[Yvette Cooper]

I am sorry, but the hon. Gentleman needs to understand that biometric checks increased every year under the Labour Government; his Government have undermined them and rolled them back. What is the point of Britain investing loads of money in biometric technology and passports, if we then switch off the system every time a European citizen goes through it? What on earth is the point of that investment, which our Government supported and were extending and rolling out, but which the hon. Gentleman’s party and his Government seem to have backed off from and ditched, undermining the border controls that are in place?

UK Border Force

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I explained in my statement the reasons for undertaking the pilot and also the fact that during the period that the pilot was undertaken, the number of illegal immigrants who were detected at the border increased. I think that rather improves security.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

Government figures show that by 2010 illegal immigration had reached an all-time high of more than 700,000 in our country. Does my right hon. Friend believe that the UK Border Agency is solely responsible for this shambolic state of affairs?

[Mrs May]

The UK Border Agency is the body responsible for putting in place the policy that is agreed for dealing with immigrants at the borders. The UK Border Agency does very good work—I have seen it for myself at Calais—in intercepting illegal immigrants who are trying to enter this country. It is doing that work on a daily basis to try to ensure that we reduce the number of illegal immigrants. This Government are trying to do something to reduce immigration into this country, to reduce net migration, and also to improve the removal of illegal immigrants so that those who come here with no right to be here are removed from this country.

Prevent Strategy

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

As the right hon. Gentleman may have seen, an Education Minister is sitting on the Treasury Bench. He will have heard that point and I am sure he will raise it with the Education Secretary.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

May I warmly welcome the Home Secretary’s statement? Since the terrible bombings of July 2005, it is clear that in some cases self-appointed Islamist groups have used public funds to poison young Muslim minds. Will my right hon. Friend therefore make it absolutely clear that this Government will only work with and fund groups that accept the British way of life, our democracy and our values?

[Mrs May]

As I made clear in my statement, and as is made clear in the strategy, the Government will not work with or fund groups that hold extremist views.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Monday 24th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

12. What steps she plans to take to reduce the burden of regulation on police forces.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

18. What steps she plans to take to reduce the burden of regulation on police forces.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

We have removed central targets by scrapping the policing pledge and the public confidence target, and we will be abolishing the assessment of policing and community safety. We are also working with Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary to develop new, light-touch monitoring arrangements for police forces that will allow us to focus on performance, at the same time as reducing the inspection burden.

[Mrs May]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. It is possible for police forces to make significant savings in the back office, and that is where they should look first. We are helping them by scrapping the stop form and reducing what needs to be recorded on the stop-and-search form. We will save 800,000 hours of police time a year.

[Sajid Javid]

My local police force, West Mercia, finds itself involved in increasing amounts of social work. Although that is to be commended—such compassion is good—it draws resources away from fighting crime. Will my right hon. Friend commit to reviewing regulations and working with her Cabinet colleagues to look at the issue carefully and ensure that social work is carried out by dedicated social services, so that the police can focus on fighting crime?

[Mrs May]

I have made it absolutely clear to the police that their aim is to cut crime, but of course they work with other agencies, in a variety of ways, on the issues that they deal with. The important thing is that when such work takes place, it leads to effective action, whatever that action should be, and not, sadly, what used to happen, as we saw from HMIC’s report on the response to antisocial behaviour. All too often, meetings and partnership meetings took place just for the sake of it, rather than something being done on the ground to benefit people.

Controlling Migration

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

There may be other hon. Members who wish to raise the issue of English language schools from their constituency viewpoint. Let me say to the hon. Gentleman, as I have to others, that we are well aware of this issue and we are looking to address it as we deal with student visas. Although many English language schools offer a very good product and are of significant economic benefit to the UK, I also need to point out that this sector of the economy is not completely free from abuse. Sadly, some schools do damage to others by setting themselves up as English language schools and then not offering the right services.

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement, but does she agree that as well as controlling immigration, we should do more to ensure that those who settle here and integrate with us respect our culture, traditions and values, and make greater efforts to learn our language?

[Mrs May]

I think it is important for people who come to live here in the United Kingdom to be able to participate in society. That is why next week we are introducing an English language test for those who wish to come here to join a spousal partner. I think it only sensible for someone who is coming to live here to be able to speak English, and thence to participate in society.

Immigration

Sajid Javid Excerpts

Thursday 18th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that successive Governments have followed a misguided policy of multiculturalism? Rather than helping to bring people of different cultures together, the policy has acted to divide them. Our approach should be to learn from that. We should emphasise the things that people who are settling in our country have in common with the people who are already here.

[Tom Brake]

I agree with some of what my hon. Friend says. I went to an international school in France from the age of eight to 18. All lessons apart from English language, history and literature were conducted in French. Other languages were used in other sections of the school for children from other countries around the world. The school ensured that all students were fully committed to French society and to learning about French history and culture, but at the same time, students could retain a stake in their countries of origin and study their history, language and literature. If the hon. Gentleman means that immigrants should integrate and absorb the basic principles of being British, I agree with him, but I hope that he can see the real value in those immigrants retaining their own culture and language, because that allows them to make a contribution to British society. I hope we agree on those points.

We need an immigration policy that is beneficial to the UK, and various organisations have raised questions about our policy. I am sure that the Minister has been on the receiving end of the briefing from Universities UK and the Association of Medical Research Charities, and that he is ready to respond positively to their concerns. The briefing concentrates quite heavily on controls that could stop researchers who could make a substantial contribution to medicine if they come to the UK under tier 1. They are worried about past salary being one of the principal considerations. Often, academics and researchers have not previously received salaries commensurate with those in the finance sector or law and so on. Therefore, some regard must be given to ensuring that people who will make a contribution will not be disallowed from coming in. We know that people make such contributions, and some have won Nobel prizes following their contributions to research. In addition, research developments very often lead to economic or business applications.

Universities UK and the Association of Medical Charities are also concerned about tier 2. Academics and researchers are not listed as shortage occupations, but they are often in specialised, niche markets, in which very few people have the same skills either in the UK or beyond.

The Minister will have seen the briefing from the British Chambers of Commerce, which is similarly concerned about tier 1. A point was made earlier about people who come to the UK under tier 1 and subsequently ended up working as pizza delivery drivers. Clearly, if that happens, something has gone dramatically wrong with the system. We need to ensure that we allow entrepreneurs, who we know will make a substantial contribution to the economy, to come to the UK, but at the same time we want to ensure that people with skills and flair come here to do the work that we expect them to do under tier 1. Ensuring that the system operates in that way is one of the challenges that the Government face.

In conclusion, the coalition agrees on the need to tackle the issues before us. Clearly, on some issues, businesses have lobbied all Members heavily with their concerns, and I know that the Government have listened carefully and will address them in their response.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend rightly identifies the issue of the supply of EU migrants. However, on the other side of the coin, there is a demand problem. One local farmer to whom I was chatting recently in my constituency of Bromsgrove told me that of his 60 employees, 54 are from the EU, mostly from Poland. He has found it very difficult to hire local workers. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s approach—a universal benefit, other welfare changes, the skills strategy and so on—will make a difference on the demand side and help the situation?

[Tracey Crouch]

Welfare reform and the demand for proper provision of opportunities have been touched on in this debate. When I was at university and studying for my A-levels, I worked in McDonald’s. At the time, there were very few non-British people working there, but now it is very difficult for young people seeking employment in the service sector to get a job, whether in McDonald’s or a sandwich chain. There has to be a balance between the provision of opportunities and a sensible approach to welfare reform that can encourage people to take all the opportunities available.

It is important that we are brave on EU immigration—indeed, we must be brave—and provide for future conditions, even if that means renegotiation in relation to those wishing to come to the UK. Like the right hon. Member for Birkenhead and my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Sussex, I recognise that welfare reform will play its part in that process, but we cannot rely on that alone to reduce the numbers of people wishing to make the most of the services that the UK provides. It is important that local authorities and community partners receive support to help promote integration and cohesion in communities suffering from social divides and tensions, but that needs to be done much better.

Finally, I am sure that our constituents will all welcome this sensible and constructive debate on what can be a sensitive issue, and I join others in calling on the Government to take note of the comments made in the Chamber today.