Home Affairs Committee Tuesday 23 May 2006
Welcome to today’s meeting of the Home Affairs Committee.
How the Committee works
The Home Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Home Office and some related matters.
Within its terms of reference, the Committee chooses its own subjects of inquiry and seeks evidence from a wide range of groups and individuals with relevant interests and experience.
When the Committee has chosen an inquiry it normally issues a press notice outlining the main themes of inquiry and inviting interested parties to submit written evidence.
A Committee may also identify possible witnesses and issue specific invitations to them to submit written evidence. Evidence may be either oral, or written, or both. Oral evidence is usually given in public, and is then published, in both paper form and on the website. (See
www.parliament.uk)
Depending on the subject, external deadlines, and the amount of oral evidence the Committee decides to take, an inquiry may last for several months and give rise to a report to the House. The Government has to reply to any report within two months. Other inquiries may simply consist of a single day’s oral evidence which the Committee may publish without making a report.
A minimum of four Members of the Committee must be present for any formal proceedings, such as taking evidence.
Today’s evidence session— Immigration Control
The Committee is taking evidence from the Rt Hon Dr John Reid MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, Sir David Normington KCB, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, Lin Homer, Director-General, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, and Helen Edwards CBE, Chief Executive, National Offender Management Service.
This is the ninth evidence session of the Committee’s inquiry into Immigration Control. This session will focus on the main issues concerning the deportation of foreign national prisoners.
The Committee’s terms of reference for this inquiry are as follows:
“The Committee will inquire into the policy and practice of immigration control, examining the entry clearance (visa) system, the granting or refusing of further leave in the UK and the enforcement of immigration control. The inquiry will range over topics including:
institutional structures and coordination
quality of initial decisions (both entry clearance and after-entry)
particular areas of policy, including the proposed points-based scheme
appeals and judicial review
e-Borders, including biometrics
reporting, investigating and punishing immigration offenders
detention policy and conditions
race equality issues
customer satisfaction
immigration statistics
co-ordination with European immigration policies
The inquiry will consider the degree to which the stated aims of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and UKvisas are being met; the extent of implementation of recommendations of recent reports and inquiries; and lessons to be learnt from the operation of the current system that might inform the implementation of the new Government policy.”
The Committee will be prepared to exercise its right to sit in private if necessary to hear sensitive evidence on these topics.
The session is expected to last for up to two hours.
Committee membership
Rt Hon John Denham MP, Chairman (Lab,Southampton, Itchen)
Mr Richard Benyon MP (Con, Newbury)
Mr Jeremy Browne MP (Lib Dem, Taunton)
Colin Burgon MP (Lab, Elmet)
Mr James Clappison MP (Con, Hertsmere)
Mrs Ann Cryer MP (Lab, Keighley)
Mrs Janet Dean MP (Lab, Burton)
Mr Shahid Malik MP (Lab, Dewsbury)
Steve McCabe MP (Lab, Birmingham, Hall Green)
Gwyn Prosser MP (Lab, Dover)
Bob Russell (Lib Dem, Colchester)
Mr Richard Spring (Con, West Suffolk)
Mr Gary Streeter MP (Con, South West Devon)
Mr David Winnick MP (Lab, Walsall North)
How can I get a record of what is said?
A transcript of this session will be placed on
www.parliament.uk as soon as possible. Print copies will be available later from The Stationery Office (0845 7023474). This session can also be found in the archive at
www.parliamentlive.tv.