§ Miss Richardsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether instructions have been issued to immigration officials that they should exclude representatives of voluntary race relations organisations from interviews with immigrant couples concerning the validity of their marriage; why this has been done; whether he will now reconsider the request to publish instructions to the immigration service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesAs my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State said in 1977, the normal practice when interviews are conducted in the exercise of the immigration control is that solicitors may be allowed to sit in with their clients but the presence of representatives other than solicitors is at the interviewing officers' discretion. Immigration officers were told that that is the normal practice, but that representatives of voluntary bodies should be excluded from interviews to establish the validity of a marriage, because it was felt that their presence might inhibit the immigration officer from pursuing his enquiries and defeat the object of the interview. I propose to review this policy and its practical application as quickly as possible. On the question of publishing instructions to the immigration service, I have nothing to add to what I said during the Adjournment debate on 19 February.