HC Deb 12 April 1962 vol 657 cc1633-5

Lords Amendment: In page 18, line 36, leave out from "person" to end of line 37 and insert: accordingly, except that he may be required to submit to examination at any time before the ship has left the port.

Mr. Renton

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

I suggest that this and the remaining Lords Amendments may be taken together.

These Amendments collectively make some alterations in the Bill's provisions for the control of seamen and they arise from an undertaking which I gave to the hon. Member for Huddersfield, West (Mr. Wade) that I would look into these provisions, the details of which he had some reason to question. The effect of the first Amendment is that an immigration officer may examine a seaman at any time while his ship is in port, whether or not it is more than twenty-four hours since the seaman first landed in the United Kingdom. It will be remembered that the normal provision is that there must be an examination within twenty-four hours, or an automatic consequence follows which may be to the disadvantage of the person concerned.

It follows that an immigration officer may impose a time condition on a seaman in accordance with the general powers given by Clause 2. We feel that it would be to the advantage of the seaman in certain cases to examine him, especially if his ship is to sail without him more than twenty-four hours after he landed. This arrangement, incidentally, will make the administration simpler and smoother and in many cases will avoid the somewhat stringent conditions which would otherwise have to be imposed under paragraph 8 (3) of the First Schedule.

Another of the Amendments has the effect that if a seaman on whom such a time condition has been imposed fails to leave the United Kingdom in accordance with that condition, he may be treated as though admission had been refused.

The remaining three Amendments are purely consequential, drafting Amendments.

Mr. Denis Healey (Leeds, East)

Is the hon. and learned Gentleman yet in a position to answer the question asked by my noble Friend. Lord Shepherd, in another place about the period which a seaman in the course of changing his ship will be allowed to stay in this country before he becomes subject to the provisions of the Bill?

Mr. Renton

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has asked that question because it is important. In many cases arrangements will have been made with the owner of the ship for the seaman to be transferred to another ship sailing at a later date and belonging to the same owners. But where that is not possible, for one reason or another, and where it is obvious that the seaman must be given an opportunity of finding another ship, perhaps not even in the same ownership, then the time condition will be such as will reasonably enable him to look for a ship. I should have thought that very often it would be fourteen days in the first instance.

If he applies through the seaman's office of the local immigration control when the fourteen days' period is about to expire, if he has not yet found a ship, then there will be no difficulty in arranging an extension for him. I think that that completely meets the point to which the hon. Member has referred.

Mr. Healey

I am grateful for those assurances.

Question put and agreed to.

Remaining Lords Amendments agreed to.