Draft Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Procedure) (Amendment) Rules 2018

Gloria De Piero Excerpts

Thursday 10th May 2018 General Committees

[Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I should say at the outset that it is not our intention to divide the Committee. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Justice, there were only 14 cases in 2017. It is not a huge number, thus we regard the measures as affecting only very exceptional cases.

Can the Minister assure me there are no plans to extend the rule changes for very exceptional cases more generally across cases in our immigration system? Does she have any plans to introduce any further statutory instruments in this parliamentary Session regarding the Special Immigration Appeals Commission Act 1997? Does she have an estimate of the number of cases the changes might affect in the first year following implementation?

Legal and judicial safeguards in all cases, including those under discussion, are vital at all stages. For us, this is an issue of fairness. We of course want to see cases disposed of as efficiently as possible. Similarly, we do not have any issue with the technical change regarding bail. I note that in the 14 cases I have mentioned, nobody had bail in any event. We will not, therefore, seek a Division, but we would appreciate reassurances from the Minister.