DRAFT AUTHORITY TO CARRY SCHEME AND CIVIL PENALTIES REGULATIONS 2023

Holly Lynch Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2023 General Committees

[Holly Lynch (Halifax) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under you, Sir Robert. I thank the Minister for her opening remarks.

As the Minister has outlined, the draft statutory instrument would implement the Authority to Carry Scheme 2023, which, as the hon. Lady said, replaces the 2021 scheme. As highlighted by the explanatory notes, the 2023 scheme would extend the range of individuals who carriers may be refused authority to carry to include people refused an ETA and people travelling on a document that is not valid for international travel, or a document of which the person is not the rightful owner.

Additionally, the SI would amend the Authority to Carry Scheme (Civil Penalties) Regulations 2015 to remove the sunset clause. As of yet, I do not believe we know when the ETA scheme will be introduced, or details as to who exactly will be required to have an ETA or how much it will cost to secure. Those are significant outstanding questions when we consider how the regulations will work.

The Opposition certainly do not oppose the measures, which are very much part of the package of terrorism laws sadly necessary to help keep people safe. There is a need to have safeguards on the exit from, entry to or return to the UK of individuals who pose a terrorism-related threat. We recognise that those checks assist hard-working UK border officials and other operational partners in their vital work by streamlining much of that electronic process.

In 2021, a Home Office Minister stated that since its introduction, the scheme had refused carriers the authority to carry individuals seeking to travel to the UK on more than 8,200 occasions. I listened carefully to the figures that the Minister cited, and I would be interested to know how many people the scheme has refused authority to carry in the past 12 months. It would be useful if the Minister could update the Committee to give us a sense of those numbers, although I appreciate that the topic is not part of her usual brief.

I am also mindful that the scheme carries a maximum penalty of £50,000. I would be interested to know how many times breaches of the scheme by carriers have been identified, leading to a penalty being imposed, and the value of those fines. That would be an indication of the seriousness of those breaches.

I had a local case in 2021 of an individual who had committed serious and violent sexual offences who was deported to Pakistan. Once there, he was able to change his name and come right back again. We absolutely cannot afford to let such mistakes happen, and I hope that the enhanced measures we are discussing cannot be cheated in such a basic way.

Other than the queries I have outlined, the Opposition very much welcome the regulations, which mitigate the risk posed by those who, sadly and dangerously, seek to do us harm. We will not seek to divide the Committee on the measure.