HL Deb 08 February 1982 vol 427 cc8-10

2.56 p.m.

Lord Avebury

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average length of time taken to prepare an explanatory statement following the refusal of an entry certificate application to a person wishing to enter the United Kingdom as the elderly parent of a person who is settled here, at the British Deputy High Commission in Bombay.

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I regret that, as my noble friend Lord Belstead informed the noble Lord in a Written Answer on 1st February, the delay at Bombay is currently about eight months. This long delay has been caused because the post have had a backlog of statements which they arc slowly clearing. They expect to fall into line with other posts by the second half of 1982.

Lord Avebury

My Lords, would it not have been possible, and is it not still possible, to even out the disparity between the other posts in the Indian subcontinent where the delay, I understand, is less than three months in every case, by transferring the staff from the other posts to Bombay? Is the noble Lord aware that even at the end of the eight months when the explanatory statement is supplied by the entry certificate officer very frequently it occurs that the adjudicator requires clarification of some point contained in it? Therefore, the eight months which the noble Lord mentions is not the time taken between the refusal of an entry certificate and the preparation of the case by the appellant before the adjudicator. It may be as much as two years. When we are talking about these elderly people, they may die before the case is resolved.

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I agree of course that the preparation of the statement, which is the subject of the Question, is not the end of the matter in regard to these appeals. However, in January 1981 the number of entry clearance officers in Bombay was increased. At that time, Bombay did have a considerable backlog of paper work. I am happy to say that that has been somewhat reduced now and I hope it will be eliminated later this year.

Lord Mishcon

My Lords, does the noble Lord recollect, as many of us do, the assurance that was given on behalf of the Government at the time of the discussion of the Nationality Bill, that the utmost humanity and reasonableness would be shown in dealing with applications for immigration and naturalisation? Does not the noble Lord know that quite obviously it is inhuman that old people of the kind whom the noble Lord has described in his Question should be kept for almost two years before a proper decision on their application is made? Does he further—and lastly, I assure the noble Lord—know that the delays which are occurring in the Home Office Department in regard to naturalisation and immigration are absolutely unconscionable at the moment?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, like the noble Lord I am anxious about the delays that there are in some of these cases. As the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, knows, we have in certain areas been able to introduce a modest element of priority for certain particularly compassionate cases, but one has to remember that if one grants priority to too many cases those who do not enjoy priority considerations then get even further delayed.

Lord Foot

My Lords, would the noble Lord tell us, first, how many applications are refused in Bombay in the course of a year and, secondly, why it is when once a refusal has been decided upon that it takes longer than, say, half an hour to draw up the explanation as to why the refusal has been made?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, if we can consider the case of elderly parents, who are a particularly important area of dependants, who apply through Bombay and some of the other posts in the subcontinent, I understand that 157 such persons applied as aged dependent parents in 1981. Of these, entry clearances were issued to 29, 83 applications were refused and 45 were either referred to the Home Office or deferred locally for further inquiries.

Lord Foot

My Lords, does it follow from that that, in the case of only 83 refusals in the course of the year, it took an average of eight months to prepare the explanatory statement as to why the refusals were made?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, there is a very considerable amount of work necessary in the preparation of these appeal statements. The answer to the noble Lord is, therefore, Yes; that was the time taken.

Lord Avebury

My Lords, is not the consideration to be satisfied in these cases that the parent in question is wholly or mainly dependent on the child to whom he or she would like to go in the United Kingdom and that the child concerned is able and willing to support them? Are not these matters of fact which will be known to the entry certificate officer at the time of his decision? And what is he doing during the whole of those eight months?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, it is not just a question of determining whether or not an aged parent is dependent on the person in the United Kingdom. There are matters of identity, for example, which may have to be established, and sometimes these things are very difficult.

Lord Mishcon

My Lords, in view of the obvious feeling that exists, will the noble Lord undertake that his noble friend the Minister will be made very much aware of the discussion here today? Is there the possibility, too, of looking very speedily into administration, in order to find out whether these matters cannot be speeded up?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, as a matter of fact these matters fall to me as the responsible Minister, because the entry clearance arrangements in the sub-continent are handled by the Foreign Office, and it also happens that I am intending to visit the sub-continent in the near future to look into these arrangements.