Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

George Eustice Excerpts
Monday 15th July 2019

(4 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Caroline Nokes Portrait Caroline Nokes
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The hon. Gentleman will understand the distinction between deportation, which happens to foreign national offenders, and removal, which happens to those who are immigration offenders. There is a very clear difference. He will know that I cannot comment on individual cases, but it is worth stating that the Supreme Court has upheld the Government’s minimum income requirement to have dependants and spouses in this country. That is an important principle, which the Government support, because we want people to have an adequate level of income that will enable them to integrate into society.

George Eustice Portrait George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth) (Con)
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Given that we ran a highly successful seasonal agricultural workers scheme from 1945 to 2013, what do the Government think they can learn from a two-year pilot? Since we have an urgent labour shortage in agriculture, will the Secretary of State commit to convert the current pilot into a fully operational scheme next year?

Caroline Nokes Portrait Caroline Nokes
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My hon. Friend will be conscious that at the moment free movement still prevails, which is one of the reasons why this is still a pilot. The Government will of course carefully evaluate the outcome of what is scheduled to be a two-year pilot to understand the impact and to look at what we can do going forward.