§ Baroness Blatchasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many immigrants, whose applications to remain in this country have not yet been approved, will be affected by the seven-year amnesty announced by the Home Office on 1 March. [HL1380]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Williams of Mostyn)No amnesty has been announced by the Home Office. This Question appears to relate to our amendment to the previous administration's policy that enforcement action would not normally be pursued against families with children under 18 who had spent 10 years or more in this country. That period has been changed to seven years, but each case is still considered on its individual merits.
We estimate that several hundred cases currently awaiting consideration might possibly be affected by this change of policy. However, it is probable that, for other reasons, many of those cases would not have resulted in removal anyway.