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

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Thursday 10th May 2018 General Committees

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I understand that this is a technical statutory instrument. Nevertheless, it is being debated in the wider context of the Home Office policy on immigration, and the so-called and highly problematic hostile environment. I am afraid that we want to express slightly more concerns in a slightly stronger tone than we have heard.

The concept of bail is a difficult issue. It may be offensive to some people because it might make them seem like criminals or suspected criminals when they are not. Appeals and the number of appeals are also at issue. I understand that a lot of the work at SIAC relates to appeals related to matters of national security but that the national security clause has been used against highly skilled migrants more than 1,000 times for minor tax issues. Although an increase in time limits might be welcome, we still have an issue with the overall range of the time limits.

Bringing things in line with other tribunals might make technical sense, but we have considerable difficulties with the operation of some of those tribunals in the first instance. I am happy to listen to any reassurances the Minister might want to give us, but we will register our concerns through a Division.