Draft Immigration (Biometric Information etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 Draft Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2025

Lisa Smart Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2025 General Committees

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

It really is a pleasure to serve on this Committee with you in the Chair, Sir Roger.

I have three hopefully constructive questions for the Minister. I am very grateful to her for laying out her thinking on these two instruments. On the Immigration (Biometric Information etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, the Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to ensure that migrants have physical proof of their legal right to stay in the UK. We absolutely understand the importance of modernising systems to improve efficiency, but that should not come at the expense of people’s ability to easily prove their status or navigate the system. I was grateful to the Minister for detailing that over-70s will not be asked to update their photographs, but will she lay out the steps that the Government have taken to ensure that vulnerable people who might not be digitally literate—including older people and those with disabilities—are not disproportionately impacted by the move to e-visas?

The draft Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2025 will enable the cost of electronic travel authorisation, which tourists need to enter the UK, to be increased by 60% from its current rate. I would be grateful if the Minister could lay out any assessment that the Government have made of the impact that this might have on Britain’s tourism industry. What steps have they taken to consult businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors about this change?

Care England’s chief executive has called the planned rise in certificate of sponsorship fees

“yet another blow to social care providers, compounding what is already a devastating situation for the sector.”

It is estimated that the increase will leave independent adult social care providers facing an extra bill of £10.3 million. Of course, that is on top of the impact of the Government’s hike to national insurance charges. I would be grateful if the Minister could lay out the steps that her Government are taking to ensure that the social care sector can still recruit the workers it needs.