§ Baroness Hilton of Eggardonasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will make changes to the authorisation under Section 19D of the Race Relations Act 1976 concerning discrimination of the basis of ethnic or national origin in the examination of passengers. [HL1259]
§ Lord RookerI have been reviewing the authorisation made on 23 April by my predecessor, my honourable friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs Roche), the Race Relations (Immigration and Asylum) (No 2) Authorisation 2001, each month 37WA on the basis of statistical evidence and intelligence material produced by the Immigration Service. The authorisation permitted the Immigration Service to pay particular attention to arriving passengers from certain specified ethnic or national groups, namely Afghans, Albanians, Kurds, Pontic Greeks, Roma, Somalis, Tamils and persons of Chinese ethnic origin carrying Japanese or Malaysian travel documents.
I have amended the authorisation to remove Pontic Greeks from the list of specified groups on the grounds that, while intelligence suggests that members of this group may pose a threat to the United Kingdom's immigration control in future, there is not sufficient evidence at present to maintain their current inclusion in the authorisation. The remaining groups covered by the authorisation remain unchanged.
A copy of the authorisation has been placed in the Library.