Draft Immigration (Age Assessments) Regulations 2023

Chris Stephens Excerpts

Monday 20th November 2023 General Committees

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

The Minister is trying to tackle this issue on the basis of adults claiming that they are children, but we also know that people seeking sanctuary and asylum are claiming sanctuary and asylum as adults when they are actually children. Does he have the relevant figures to hand?

[Robert Jenrick]

I do not have those figures. Having done this job for more than a year now, I have never come across any instances—

[Chris Stephens]

I have.

[Robert Jenrick]

If that is the case, the hon. Member should provide them, but I have never been provided with any data or indeed anecdote of a child deliberately posing as an adult. All the data I have seen goes in the other direction, with adults posing as children in the belief, mistaken or otherwise, that they will receive better treatment here in the United Kingdom. That is the issue we are trying to resolve. Why does that matter? Because none of us want to see adults posing as minors and being placed in the same settings as genuine children. That is not an academic debate; it is a very serious matter. I have seen some of the appalling problems that can arise, including a case in which an individual went into the loving care of foster carers and then into a primary school, and ultimately went on to murder somebody in Bournemouth. Sadly, I could cite other incidents like that. This is what we are trying to stop.

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[Robert Jenrick]

My hon. Friend speaks with great experience and is absolutely right: this change will improve the overall evidential standard of decisions, and will be particularly useful to weed out the obviously egregious instances that we all see represented in the media, which in my role I see all too often.

[Chris Stephens]

rose—

[Robert Jenrick]

If I may make a little progress, I will come back to the hon. Gentleman.

The statutory instrument specifies scientific methods for the age-assessment process, including magnetic resonance imaging of the bones of the knee and radiographs of the lower wisdom teeth and the bones of the hand and wrist. The images will be used to assess the skeletal and dental development, or maturation, of the bones and teeth. The methods have been recommended by the Age Estimation Science Advisory Committee.

Once scientific methods have been specified, if an age-disputed person refuses to consent, without reasonable grounds, to the use of those methods as part of the assessment of their age, a decision maker must take that refusal to consent as damaging the age-disputed person’s credibility. That is referred to as negative inference. The damage to credibility included in the statutory instrument is for the purpose only of deciding whether to believe any statement that the person has made that is relevant to the assessment of their age, not of deciding the person’s credibility in their wider immigration claim.

The Home Office considers the taking of a negative inference appropriate and proportionate to prevent abuse of the immigration system. If individuals who deliberately misrepresented their ages were able to refuse to undergo scientific methods of age assessment without any consequence, it would undermine the UK’s ability to prevent adults from accessing children’s services and to safeguard genuine children using those services. A refusal to consent to a specified scientific method of age assessment without reasonable grounds would not automatically preclude the individual’s being considered a child. That refusal would still need to be taken into account alongside other relevant evidence as part of the comprehensive age-assessment process undertaken by social workers.

Members should also note that there has to be reasonable doubt about an individual’s age for them to go through the age-assessment process. The Committee can be reassured that those who are clearly children will be identified at the initial age-determination process at the border, so will not subject to any of the relevant procedures at all.

[Chris Stephens]

The Minister is being generous in giving way. He mentioned the Age Estimation Science Advisory Committee; is it not the case that it reported to the Government that it can estimate only whether an age is possible?

[Robert Jenrick]

As I think I have said, the Age Estimation Science Advisory Committee recommended that there was no precise way to estimate an individual’s age, but it did conclude that taking age assessment into consideration was a worthwhile thing to do because it would help us to get closer to the correct age. That is an important step forward and is one reason why most other European countries adopt such an approach.

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[Chris Stephens]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Hosie.

This Committee is the main course, but I was part of the Committee earlier today that considered the statutory instrument from the Ministry of Justice, which seems to justify whether this change can go ahead. As I say, we are now at the main course and debating whether it should go ahead or not.

I was surprised by the Minister’s answer to me earlier and that he is not aware of any instances of people seeking sanctuary or asylum in the country who claim that they are adults when, in reality, they are children. I have examples from my constituency where that is the case, and I thank Aberlour and other organisations that look after asylum seekers in my constituency for raising these matters and for looking after those individuals. All the asylum charities in Glasgow South West and the great city of Glasgow should be commended for their work in this area.

This is not the mundane statutory instrument that people might think it would be, for the simple reason that this issue is not without controversy, and human rights groups have raised their concerns and condemned the regulations. I wonder whether the Minister can tell us what responses have been given to the human rights groups that have concerns about the Government’s direction in this area, because we need to give regard to the fact that we are dealing with people who have suffered incredible trauma in getting here and in their experiences where they have come from. I know from my case load that some of them are victims of sexual violence, for example. There is a former Immigration Minister on the Government side, and he will be aware that my office and the Home Office are in regular contact every week to discuss the many cases that we have, given that Glasgow is an asylum dispersal area.

I believe that using MRI and X-rays in this area is beyond cruel, and experts are saying that this measure is unethical and will be inaccurate and potentially harmful. I note that the Scottish Government have opposed it, as have human rights groups. One of the reasons is that it risks the rights of children who have already been through unimaginable hardship. For me, it is a question of values. There are also ramifications if one does not participate in the process. The Minister was very candid when he said that if someone does not participate in the process “without reasonable grounds”, it would be damaging to their case. If I understood him correctly, I take that to mean that if someone refuses to participate in the process, they might not receive a positive decision on their asylum claim. There are reasons why people may well refuse to participate, and it may simply come down to a language barrier, for example. As I will come on to, it might be because these particular tests are not even accurate and the science does not support this statutory instrument.

[Kevin Foster]

I recall our many conversations in my previous role about his casework, and the hon. Gentleman is a doughty fighter in this area. If what he says about the process is correct, why do so many countries in Europe use such measures?

[Chris Stephens]

I notice that that has been said, but not one country in Europe was actually named. It will be interesting to see whether the Minister mentions countries in Europe, because I find it curious that this approach is said to be standard in Europe, but not one country was named. I am looking forward to the answer, and I am sure it is being handed to the Minister right now on the little green Post-it note he has in front of him—yes, I am observant.

[Paul Blomfield]

I am sure that, like me, the hon. Gentleman is amused by the Government’s reliance on other European countries as a benchmark for good practice. Does he recognise that although many other European countries have the legal capacity to use biological tests, many of them have found that such tests have not worked and have not added value, and they are therefore discontinuing them?

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[Chris Stephens]

That is a very interesting intervention from the hon. Gentleman, who does a lot of work in this area. As he mentioned, he was involved in the Nationality and Borders Bill, and I will come to some of the experts’ concerns. I believe the policy should be evidence-based. Unlike some Cabinet Ministers, I think that we should listen to experts on such issues. The Government’s approach opposes the principles of informed consent and some of the recommendations set out by the body that was commissioned to look at this policy, as was mentioned earlier. It seeks to ignore some damning comments from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which says that

“informed consent it fundamental to all medical practice, and by definition must be free from duress.”

If you have a system in which you say to someone that they must participate in a test and that, if they do not, it will damage the claim, I suggest that that person is participating under duress.

Further to that, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health says that

“x-ray imaging for a non-medical purpose is not ethical”,

and that

“x-rays to determine age can be widely inaccurate”.

The Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Committee have said:

“There is no method, biological or social worker-led, that can predict age with precision”.

It can only estimate whether an age is possible. It can only tell you whether an age is possible, and it cannot be precise. We will therefore get into all sorts of difficulties if the Government go ahead with this. Many children have faced significant trauma in their journey to the UK; they should be met with compassion and care, not unnecessary medical procedures. The question of what the cost is has been raised with the Government. That is an excellent question, but I would also ask what the cost is to the UK’ s reputation if it goes ahead with these tests.