UN Syrian Refugees Programme

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I do not think anybody can say that this Government are not playing our full role on the diplomatic front. The Foreign Secretary has been leading efforts in trying to get a diplomatic solution and I am very pleased that those Geneva II talks will take place and start this week. They are, of course, a process, not a single point in time. I think we are leading. We are the second largest donor in the world and the largest donor in the European Union. Until very recently when the Germans stepped up, we had donated more money than the rest of the EU combined.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Going back to the question of Lebanon, does my hon. Friend agree that that frail state desperately needs two things: first, the splendid programme of aid we have, and, secondly, much greater assistance for the very brave, but very small and poorly equipped, Lebanese army, which is trying to hold the border and the ring within the country?

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Although I welcome the measures that the Government have taken on benefits, which will have an effect, are not the concerns about immigration from Romania and Bulgaria really just the tip of a wider problem? With much of southern and eastern Europe still heading into recession, tolerance of the free movement of people is quite close to reaching its natural end.

[Mr Harper]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is why our right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said last week that we very much want to look at free movement and how we negotiate future accession arrangements for large countries. He set out a range of things we might want to consider, other than just time limits—for example, relative income levels in countries—which I think has great merit.

Psychoactive Substances

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

I thank the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson), for welcoming me to the Front Bench on this matter, and I agree that the key issue is that the EU basis, suggesting there is an impediment to legitimate trade, is completely wrong. That is why the EU proposals are unacceptable.

The early-warning system does work. In fact, I referred AMT to it only a week or so ago, when my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) prompted me to do so. The early-warning system is also activated in terms of Exodus Damnation, so that we can see what can be done about that. What we have done successfully in this country is ban families of substances, and even substances that do not exist, in anticipation of what might come next.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I strongly support the Minister’s stance against Europe on this issue and thank him for his detailed letter on the point that he has just made. As two of my constituents have died from legal highs, however, may I urge him to be open to testimony from the police that the generic ban to which he refers is not yet covering everything that it needs to cover?

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

I entirely agree with the premise of my hon. Friend’s question. Those so-called head shops often behave irresponsibly. She will know that a study of international comparisons is currently under way, and the consideration of legal highs is very much part of that process.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

My hon. Friend will be aware of the three deaths in Kent, two of which were in my constituency. I welcome his early-warning system and temporary banning orders, but may I suggest that the best way to cope with this is simply to say that if someone dies or becomes severely ill as a result of taking a drug that is a close chemical cousin of a banned drug, that should throw up a criminal offence?

[Norman Baker]

The Home Office already takes steps to ensure that when a new substance appears that could be injurious to health, we seek to ban analogous drugs—the family of drugs—as a consequence. Some of the banned drugs have often not yet been created, but if and when they are created, they are already covered. We are trying to deal with this through anticipatory methods as well as by other means. We also try to have an early response system, so that when a substance appears, it can be picked up and banned very quickly.

Abu Qatada (Deportation)

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 8th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I understand my hon. Friend’s point. I have already answered on a couple of occasions questions about the family of Abu Qatada. As I said, they will themselves have a decision to take about where they see their future.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend both on this excellent result and on her commitment to reviewing and, hopefully, reforming human rights legislation. However, we will not get away from what she calls the crazy interpretation of our human rights laws if we allow our judges a completely open-ended clause in the legislation containing an unspecified phrase such as “exceptional circumstances”.

[Mrs May]

I understand my hon. Friend’s point. We will, of course, need to look at those issues when we come to frame the legislation so that we can be clear as a Parliament about exactly the sort of circumstances we are looking at. However, I am sure that my hon. Friend will appreciate that there may be some circumstances in which it will not be possible to deport somebody, although we want to ensure that we can deport foreign-national prisoners as far as possible. We will set out, as we have already tried to in the immigration rules, the circumstances in which we expect that a foreign-national prisoner will not be allowed to remain in the UK on the basis of article 8 but will be deported.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 10th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I can assure the hon. Lady that the Government look carefully at all-party group reports on areas that relate to, or affect, the Home Office. On the changes that we propose to access to public services, and on the whole issue of people coming to join families, there is a principle, which is about being able to ensure that where people are accessing public services, they are services that they have contributed to. This is a great concern for many members of the public, and it is right for the Government to tighten it up.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I welcome everything that my right hon. Friend is doing in this area. May I urge her, in the context of the all-party group, to carry out a realistic assessment of how much it costs to support a family, especially in southern England, and of whether the limit of around £18,500 is high enough?

[Mrs May]

When we set the limit we did not just pluck a figure from thin air; we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to propose a figure. It proposed a range of numbers, from £18,600 to a higher figure. The Government chose to go with £18,600; we felt that was the appropriate figure to use, although, of course, the amount is higher for those who have children in the family. When there is one child, it goes up to £22,400, and it goes up for each further child thereafter. I assure my hon. Friend that the work was done independently by the Migration Advisory Committee.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 25th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

The point I made at the beginning still stands. These are all people who have had a decision and have been refused the right to remain in the UK after going through the full appeal process. For those who submitted a reconsideration request prior to our policy change last November, we will work through all their cases in order. If the right hon. Gentleman has a clear case of where there is a particularly compassionate reason for looking at it earlier, I would welcome him getting in touch with me; otherwise, we will work through the cases in date order.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Given those answers, will my hon. Friend confirm that the greatest single reason for the backlog in the UK Border Agency is the tendency of courts to go on allowing more and more appeals, thereby lengthening the process?

[Mr Harper]

My hon. Friend is right that when the UKBA makes decisions, people in settlement cases frequently have a right of appeal. Some of those processes can often be very lengthy, so we will keep on considering whether there are ways of making the system smoother and more streamlined.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 7th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

The purpose of those rules is very straightforward—it is to make sure that people who wish to bring somebody who is not a British citizen into the country are able to support them out of their own resources rather than expecting them and their family to be supported by the taxpayer. That seems perfectly reasonable to me, and it was very well supported in the consultation, but we will keep its impact under review, as I set out in my earlier answer.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I strongly welcome this change. Although this measure has been denounced by some as hard-hearted, may I suggest to my hon. Friend that, in practice, in many cases it will still let people come in who will require a very significant subsidy for their housing, so it is only a first step in the right direction?

[Mr Harper]

The income limit that we set for spouses wishing to bring their family members into this country is based on evidence that the Migration Advisory Committee put forward, having looked at the level at which people were largely not able to claim income-related benefits. As I said, the premise is very simple: if someone wants to bring their family to the UK, they can, but they are expected to support them rather than expecting the taxpayer to do so. That seems perfectly reasonable.

Abu Qatada

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

Obviously, we will look at every avenue that it would be appropriate to follow in order to uphold our case and to get what we all want, which is the deportation of Abu Qatada. If we look at the judgment, however, we can see that SIAC has been very clear about the vast majority of assurances in relation to the fair trial that Abu Qatada would receive, to his personal treatment, to his ability to have access to defence lawyers and so on. The problem lay with the one point about the admissibility of evidence and, even in that regard, the judgment refers to the fact that there would be the possibility of cross-examination in relation to such evidence. Justice Mitting still came to this decision, however. We will appeal it, and we will fight our case as strongly as we can.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the concept of the rule of law, which this country played such a large role in developing, essentially involves a balance between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the constitution, and that the combination of a European institution, which cannot be reformed by anybody, and a philosophy that is increasingly prevalent among our own courts, which imports ideas from outside British common law and outside statute, is undermining the confidence of the public in the rule of law in this country?

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend has raised issues about which he has spoken on many occasions in the past, as have a number of my right hon. and hon. Friends. What the public want is to see Abu Qatada deported. We want to see Abu Qatada deported, and we are going to do everything we can within the rule of law to achieve that. It is still open to us to ask leave to appeal. We are doing that, and we will fight for that as hard as we can. We are doing everything in our power, working with the Jordanian Government, to ensure that we can bring about what the public want, which is the deportation of Abu Qatada.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I have briefly seen that report in the newspapers this morning. Of course, our plans to take CEOP into the National Crime Agency will enhance the ability of our police officers and crime fighters to deal with such images and such appalling crimes, which I am sure that everyone in the House would deprecate.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s measures on illegal Traveller encampments are welcomed by the vast majority of rural people and are no threat at all to those who are committed to a travelling way of life and want to carry it out in a legitimate fashion?

[Mr Harper]

I think the way that my hon. Friend puts that is exactly right. I have experience of that in my constituency and by dealing with those people who abuse the regime and the hospitality of the settled community we will make the settled community more welcoming of those who are genuine Travellers. In that way, both parts of the community can live in harmony.