§ Lord Dubsasked Her Majesty's Government:
In what circumstances immigration officers will be requesting passenger information from carriers under paragraph 27B of Schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971, as inserted by Section 18 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. [HL1941]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton)The types of information which may be requested are set out in the Schedule to the Immigration (Passenger Information) Order 2000. The information specified in Part I of the Schedule to the order is contained in the machine-readable zone of passports and visas. Provision of this information is essential if we are to be able to grant or refuse entry to passengers in advance of their arrival in the United Kingdom. We have set out what we propose by way of such flexibilities in the draft Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order laid before Parliament on 30 March 2000.
We would expect to come to a mutual agreement with carriers as to the routes for which we might start to require Part I information and as to when the requirement would start. Beyond this, we would only seek Part I information on specific occasions for intelligence purposes. We would endeavour to keep such requests to a minimum. The information specified in Part II of the schedule will only be requested where the carrier is in possession of it. However, we think it might take some time for carriers to put systems in place to allow them to provide us with any significant volume of information, so we will implement the new power gradually over the coming months. We will continue in this spirit of co-operation, but ultimately we reserve the right to insist upon the provision of passenger information under the new powers wherever we have good reason in the context of the immigration control.