HL Deb 25 October 1967 vol 285 cc1647-9
THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE

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

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their attention has been drawn to the complaints of the immigration officers in their staff magazine Bulletin, and the Home Office reply thereto, stating that only 1,339 individuals were denied entry out of 42,000 coming here in 1966; and to ask whether Her Majesty's Government will extend the number of medical centres—which have facilities for the medical tests referred to—so that speedy overnight vetting of debatable cases can be verified.]

THE MINISTER OF STATE, HOME OFFICE (LORD STONHAM)

My Lords, the noble Earl refers to an editorial in the immigration officers' staff association magazine. This contained a private expression of views and was not intended for outside publication. The editorial was not a well-balanced account of the problems arising in the field of immigration, and the Government do not agree with the views expressed in it. There are already adequate arrangements for prompt medical examination of cases where an immigrant's age is in doubt, but by no means all cases can be disposed of on the basis of medical evidence.

THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE

My Lords, I have a supplementary question in regard to the number of medical centres. How many are there and what is the strength of the Civil Service staffs operating them?

LORD STONHAM

There are some forty ports of entry, including airports, and the total number of immigration officers, normally, is 660. That was the number last year. This number is augmented in the summer by a temporary increase of some 10 per cent., and the number of officers at the principal ports are: Heathrow, 225; Gatwick, 45; Dover, 94; Folkestone, 22; Southampton, 52; Harwich, 40. And I would inform the noble Earl that at every single one of the ports of entry there is available a medical inspector for immediate action in any case where such action is needed.

THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his answer. May I ask the number of seaports? I have heard only five airports.

LORD STONHAM

My Lords, in other words, there are forty points of entry, including the airports. So far as seaports are concerned, the number would be round about thirty.

THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE

My Lords, may I say, in relation to what the noble Lord has said, that this article should never have been printed or published and read by the public. Obviously, it represented the views held by the editor of the Bulletin. We tend to keep civil servants out of every kind of publicity, and that is quite right; but those views were obviously heard and were reported. They were allowed to go into the Bulletin, which is the paper which civil servants, particularly those in the immigration service, read.

LORD STONHAM

My Lords, I do not accept that, and there is no reason to believe that the views expressed in this private publication, by the editor, are representative of the views of immigrant officers as a whole. This was a private publication. It was most unfortunate that it leaked and became public. As the noble Earl is aware, it is the general view of Civil Service discipline that officials should not publish accounts of matters which are the responsibility of Ministers, and the editorial was not intended for outside publication.

THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE

My Lords, is it not evident that people are working under a sense of frustration, because they have not been given the tools they consider necessary for the job? Obviously, their frustration comes out somehow to the public. The public are supposed to look after their interests, and understand their difficulties.

LORD STONHAM

I do not accept that they have not been given the tools to do the job. I agree that there must be, inevitably, a good deal of frustration in a job of this kind, where immigration officers have the unenviable task of rejecting some of the people who want to come here because they do not conform with the rules governing admission and because of their understandable attempted evasion of those rules. A great many more people want to come here than we can properly admit, and it is a frustrating job when you have to reject some of them.