Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

The contribution of the UK stands up to scrutiny and our overall contribution bears comparison with any international country. We are providing £700 million in aid, which is assisting hundreds of thousands of people each month. The vulnerable persons relocation scheme deals with the most vulnerable individuals, and I underline the fact that we have granted asylum to 3,000 people from Syria since the start of the conflict.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

23. I welcome what the Minister says on Syrian refugees coming in this direction, but will he comment on British citizens travelling in the opposite direction? He may be aware of a story in today’s Daily Mail regarding allegations that British citizens have been involved in barbaric and brutal beheadings in Syria and Iraq. Will he assure me that those claims will be investigated very urgently, including claims that an individual from Cardiff was involved? Will he join me in welcoming the absolute condemnation of those acts by the Muslim community across Cardiff?

[James Brokenshire]

I am sure that the whole House would join the hon. Gentleman and me in utterly condemning those responsible for the brutal murder of Peter Kassig and the appalling images we saw over the weekend. The Government remain resolute in confronting terrorism in all its forms and pursuing those responsible for heinous terrorist acts, and I endorse his comments about British Muslim communities across the country standing up against this brutality and heinous evil. We stand together in condemning these actions and taking whatever action is appropriate.

Wanless Review

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I will, if I may, write to my hon. Friend with details on the work that the Home Office has been doing to ensure that files are preserved and available for those who need to see them.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

On Friday, given the discussion that was going on in the media about this report, I raised a point of order in the House. Although I welcome the detail that the Home Secretary has given us today, I remain somewhat confused as to why she did not choose proactively to make a statement to the House. There are issues of confidence and assurance that concern both victims and Members from all parts of the House. Will the Home Secretary reassure us that she will take a proactive approach in coming to this House with information on these serious issues?

[Mrs May]

I have come to this House on a number of occasions to deal with these matters and to talk about the work that the Government have put in place in relation to these very serious allegations—be it in response to the Rotherham inquiry or to the child abuse inquiry panel that the Government have established. It is absolutely my intention that the work that has been put in place by this Government will get to the truth. Survivors of child abuse will have the opportunity to put their case and to see a thorough consideration of these issues so that we can identify what went wrong, why they were not protected by the very institutions that should have protected them and what further lessons we need to learn for the future. I will undertake to update the House on a regular basis, when it is possible to do so.

The independent panel will be conducting its work independently. It is not for me to determine when it may make public statements about the work that it is doing. One issue that I wish to raise with it is exactly this question about how it can ensure that people are aware of the work that it is doing while it is doing it, so that people can have confidence in it and see what is being done.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Well, what an embarrassment of riches. Mr Stephen Doughty.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Home Secretary will no doubt agree that co-ordination in the fight against ISIL and extremists in this country is crucial. Will she therefore explain why, to my dismay, it appears that the Secretary of State for Education and the Minister for Universities, Science and Cities have yet to meet their Welsh counterparts and other devolved counterparts to discuss tackling extremism in schools and universities throughout our country?

[James Brokenshire]

Through the extremism task force there is work that is chaired by the Prime Minister on combating extremism and terrorism. This work is ongoing, and putting Channel and Prevent on to a statutory basis will ensure that we have that co-ordination at a local level and that there is consistent priority across the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

As my hon. Friend will know, the Intelligence and Security Committee is currently completing its review of the investigations related to that case, and I do not think it would be appropriate for me to comment further in that regard. The Home Affairs Committee has conducted a broad review of counter-terrorism powers—indeed, I gave evidence to it. Clearly, we keep powers under review, and we have sought to extend extraterritorial jurisdiction for a number of terrorism offences in relation to the Serious Crime Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

20. I also associate myself with the Minister’s initial comments. He and the Home Secretary will be aware that a number of organisations that operate in Cardiff have recently been proscribed. Will the Minister clarify the names of those organisations and outline how he intends to ensure that individuals involved in them do not simply rebrand themselves and go under other organisational names in the future? They are not welcome in Cardiff by either the Muslim community or the wider community.

[James Brokenshire]

I entirely endorse the hon. Gentleman’s comments, and I know of the work he is undertaking locally in Cardiff in combating extremism and ensuring that community groups are brought together to confront it. We have made further changes to proscription in terms of aliases related to al-Muhajiroun, and have added the names of other terrorist organisations. We will keep that focus and keep the issue under review. Obviously, the police are also looking at whether there are prosecution opportunities.

Passport Applications

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend is right. It is clear that a lot of the cases being raised are where there are long delays for families applying for their child’s first passport. Those applications should be relatively straightforward, but families are facing very long delays and that is jeopardising family holidays.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Is not the fundamental issue a complete lack of confidence in what the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister are saying? Two constituents contacted me on Twitter yesterday to say that promised emergency travel documents were still out of reach and that the embassy in Qatar was clueless on how to issue them. They have newborns still stuck here. What seems to be consistent is that they are hearing one message from the Home Secretary, but when they try to deal with the system, it does not follow through.

[Yvette Cooper]

That is a very important point and I will come on to some of the problems with the emergency measures the Home Secretary has introduced, because it is clear that they are not yet working.

The problem is that the Home Office simply did not listen to the warnings. Why did the Home Secretary not act in January when the Passport Office says it first realised there was a problem? Why did she not act in February when applications kept going up? My right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn, the shadow Immigration Minister, wrote to the Immigration Minister in March, three months ago, to warn him about the problem. Why did she not act then? [Interruption.] The Home Secretary sits on the Front Bench and says that she did act. How come so many people are still waiting so long for their passports, when they have paid so much extra to get them on time? Why did the Home Secretary not do enough in April, when more and more MPs’ complaints started coming in? Why did she not act in May, when diplomats warned her the system was not working? Why, even in June, did she spend days denying there was a backlog, denying there was a problem and boasting about meeting all the targets?

The Prime Minister claimed last week that the Home Office has been on it since January. On what? It certainly was not on it even last week. The Home Secretary did not have her eye on the ball. She was too busy dealing with the Education Secretary’s hissy fits and too busy blaming everyone else. She said last week it was the seasonal upsurge. How British—it really must be the weather to blame! She then said that the problem was an unprecedented increase in demand—the Home Secretary blames the passport crisis on people wanting passports. The Prime Minister blamed identity cards. Conservative Back Benchers even claimed it was a crisis manufactured by the Opposition. With this Home Secretary, it is always someone else’s fault. She blames the weather, the holidaymakers, the economy, the Labour party, the civil service and even the Education Secretary—we will join her in that, but round in circles they go. We have known for some time that the Government are not going anywhere, but now no one else is going anywhere.

When will the crisis be over? Two weeks ago, the Home Secretary said that 98% of targets were being met. This week, the Passport Office chief executive said that 90% were being met. It is getting worse, not better. How many months will it take to have the system back on track? What difference will the new measures make now? The Home Secretary has said that there will be 250 extra staff. It is clear from the Passport Office chief executive that many of them are still being trained. In addition, they are coming from other parts of the Home Office, including borders. Just as this is a busy time for the Passport Office, it is an increasingly busy time at our borders. We know that customs checks are not being done, so what else is being put at risk? Is the Home Secretary confident that she now has enough staff in place to clear the backlog? If she has enough, surely she can give us a timetable on when applications and processing will be back to normal, and when families can be reassured that they will not face delays.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs May]

No. I am going to make a bit of progress.

Secondly, those who apply from overseas to renew their passports for travel to the United Kingdom will be given a 12-month extension of their existing passports. To prevent abuse, this will be limited to people who have an existing passport that expired within the last six months, that is valid for three months, or—where a customer needs to travel to a country that requires a minimum of six months’ remaining validity on a passport —that is valid for seven months. This service, which is also free of charge, is being implemented by consular and embassy staff in the country of application. Overseas posts have been provided with stamps to provide this service and customers are already booking appointments for this service, which will be available from Monday. Where a customer has had their passport extended in this way, HMPO will contact them later to arrange the next steps for getting a new full passport.

Thirdly, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is now issuing emergency travel documents for children who need to travel to the UK.

[Stephen Doughty]

Will the Home Secretary give way?

[Mrs May]

Will the hon. Gentleman have a little patience and let me complete my paragraph?

As I said to the House last week, parents will still have to provide comprehensive proof confirming identity, nationality and parental responsibility for the child before we issue these documents, as we are not prepared to compromise on child protection, but this should help to relieve the administrative burden on the Passport Office.

[Stephen Doughty]

If what the Home Secretary has said is true, why are constituents of mine contacting me from Qatar saying that they are unable to get these emergency travel documents at the British embassy there? Does it not just add to the sense of complete chaos and the lack of confidence in this process if people are not able to get the answers they need from FCO officials abroad?

[Mrs May]

I will of course ensure that inquiries are made into what has happened in relation to Qatar, but information has gone out from the Foreign Office to its posts—to our embassies and high commissions—about all the measures that have been put in place in relation to overseas applications. The hon. Gentleman has raised a particular point in relation to a particular country, however, and I will ensure that it is followed up.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Pamela Nash), who aptly outlined the serious consequences of some of these cases for people’s lives. I have seen very many similar cases myself. I add my thanks to the many staff with whom my office have been dealing. I thank my own staff, who have been dealing with people in great distress about the consequences of not being able to get passports or travel documents in time, for all sorts of reasons, and in many countries around the world as well as here in the UK.

I particularly thank the Minister’s office for dealing with a couple of the most extreme cases. However, this exemplifies the whole problem. Why am I and other Members having to speak to the Minister’s office late on a Friday evening and put those staff under additional pressure to deal with people who are clearly under a lot of pressure themselves? The fact that we have arrived at that situation exemplifies the problems that have been experienced all over the country. Among many of the constituents to whom I have spoken, there is a real loss of confidence in the Home Office’s ability to deliver one of its most basic functions and one of our most basic rights—that of being able to prove our citizenship and to travel freely around the world as a result.

One case of which the Minister will be aware involved a couple and their child in China who were being threatened not only with fines for not having a passport for their child but, potentially, deportation or even jail if they did not get their passport, causing them great difficulties. When we are supposed to be promoting constituents trading and engaging in commerce all around the world and expanding Britain’s links with countries such as China, it is terrible for them to have to go through that experience and potentially have to leave China, with great consequences for their business there.

One of the other key concerns, sadly, has been about the service that several people have received when they have tried to get in contact with the Passport Office by phone. That is not in any way to denigrate the efforts of the staff, who are under an awful amount of stress and clearly have not been given the resources and backing to be able to do their jobs. Some people have been told that they are going to be called back within 48 hours but that has not happened. Others have called from countries where phone calls back to the UK are very expensive, been put on hold for ages and then told to phone back because the computer systems had broken down or told that they would be phoned back when the computer systems were working, but that has not happened. A constituent told me about a case that arose only yesterday. She says:

“I had a call back from the passport office today who said that despite me being told I was going to be fast tracked…I have delayed this process more by calling them”

to find out how the application is progressing. She continues:

“Every time I ring it logs my call and then they have 2 working days after my call to respond. So I now I should not hear from them until Friday. Surely this can’t be how the process works?”

The sense of absolute exasperation that people are feeling shows the serious problems that we are facing.

There is a lack of clarity from the Home Secretary about several issues, particularly refunds. Another issue is the contradictory or unclear information that we have been receiving. We have heard a lot about the state of the information on the website, and I have experienced that myself. As regards the information that is being provided, or not provided, to our posts overseas—to embassies and high commissions—the system is not working. I mentioned Qatar, but I am aware of other places where officials are clearly not being empowered to be able to support our constituents. It is a shame that we do not have a Foreign Office Minister here. I hope that the Immigration Minister and the Home Secretary will be in regular contact with Foreign Office officials to make sure that these issues are dealt with swiftly. Unfortunately, this situation represents a much wider problem at the Home Office in terms of information that is provided on websites and to constituents. I repeatedly deal with cases of people getting false information about processing times, guidance on visa applications, and all sorts of other things. There needs to be a deep and radical look at what is happening about the information that is provided to the public.

Having heard today’s speeches, I am left in no doubt about the causes of this situation. I fully associate myself with the comments by my hon. Friends the Members for Newport West (Paul Flynn) and for Newport East (Jessica Morden) about the cutbacks in the service in Wales, as well as the comments by the Public and Commercial Services Union about the overall cuts to the service. The changes to overseas applications have had a massive impact. There has been a lack of serious oversight and management of the issue at senior levels within the Home Office. That goes to the heart of the matter. I hope that the Minister will be able to outline some of the costs to the system as a whole as a result of this—not only in terms of diversion of staff time, overtime costs, and other costs to the Home Office, but the costs to staff through the additional stress they have been put under. Sadly, I have a list of six or seven cases that we have yet to resolve in addition to the existing caseload of nearly 30. I will share those with the Minister’s office, and I very much hope that he can help in addressing these concerns.

Passport Office (Delays)

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robinson]

I will give way in a moment.

As we all know, in the early summer months, people take advantage of cheap flights and hotels, and need a passport to make their bookings.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. Has he, like me, encountered cases involving expatriate British citizens who are having trouble coming back for the summer holidays to visit family and friends? There are cases in my constituency of newborn children not being able to see their family because they are not able to get passports in time.

[Mr Robinson]

Indeed I have. I am grateful for that intervention. Seldom have I known a problem that is so multifaceted. There is a problem with expats. I have a slightly different case that involves a gentleman who is a naturalised British subject, but who has not had occasion to travel abroad before. He is a professor at a prestigious local university who wants to travel abroad. He is going to get married in Berlin and has an important lecture to give in Japan. He has been waiting for two months for a British passport and now thinks that he will have to get—

Extremism

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is one of the reasons why when the Home Office looked at Prevent funding and dealing with Prevent and its counter-terrorism strand, we said that we should be focusing the money not according to the number of Muslims living in a community but according to the risk of radicalisation, because that was the issue we were addressing. I am sorry to say it has been reported that the shadow Home Secretary suggests that was a false move, which implies that she thinks money should be spent just on the basis of how many Muslims are living in a particular community. I do not agree with that. I think it gives the wrong message about people in our Muslim communities. We should be focusing on where we believe there is genuine radicalisation.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Home Secretary will be aware of the recent case of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, a former university student in Wales who was recently held in Sudan in connection with a bombing of a bus station in Abuja by Boko Haram, which killed over 70 people. Given the serious concerns rightly raised about the co-ordination of Government policy in this instance, will the Home Secretary assure the House that there is co-ordination of policy in relation to universities, and not just schools?

[Mrs May]

Yes, we take very seriously what might be happening on university campuses. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Universities and Science has spent a lot of time looking at this issue, and we are constantly working with universities to ensure that action can be taken on their campuses to try to stop the sort of radicalisation and the extremist preachers that have been on some campuses in the past.

Asian Restaurateurs (Immigration Enforcement)

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd April 2014 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Osborne. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) for securing such an important debate and allowing me to speak, and I welcome the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Karen Bradley) and thank her for her leave to speak in this short debate.

I want to start by making it clear that, like my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli, I am absolutely committed to ensuring that immigration rules in this country are robustly enforced, and to ensuring that managed migration occurs in a way that is fair, transparent and beneficial for both this country and the individuals involved. The many organisations and businesses that I have spoken to, and that attended the meeting we held the other day, have made it clear that they do not in any way dispute the need for robust immigration enforcement in the catering and retail sectors, or elsewhere in the economy. It is crucial that the House notes that fact. The Asian Catering Federation, the Bangladesh Caterers Association and many other organisations, as well as many individual restaurants and businesses, have made it absolutely clear that illegal immigration undermines their legitimate business and the wider economy. No one wants to see people living and working under the radar, undercutting wages and conditions.

I have received representations at recent meetings and directly from businesses in my constituency, and two major concerns are coming across to me from the Asian restaurant community and, it appears, from throughout Wales. The first, which my hon. Friend mentioned, is the issue of how enforcement operations are conducted. Secondly, the advice and support given to restaurateurs and businesses on ensuring enforcement of, and compliance with, the law is important. It might interest Members to know that I produced a leaflet for businesses in my constituency, which is very diverse, to give advice on how to comply with immigration law. Nevertheless, it is a complex area of law, and although many businesses want to ensure that they are adhering to it, they often do not feel supported in doing so.

My hon. Friend mentioned the concern expressed by a number of businesses that some of them, or, indeed, the sector as a whole, are being disproportionately targeted. That must be addressed. Bearing in mind that concern, I hope that the Minister can furnish us with clear statistics that will help to restore confidence in these operations. I would particularly welcome statistics on the number of enforcement visits that have taken place in Wales, their geographical location and sector, the percentage of such visits that have led to arrests and prosecutions, and the number of premises that have received repeat visits from enforcement officers.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

First, is not one of the problems that, certainly in my experience, some restaurants have difficulties in finding trained staff? That leads to all sorts of other problems, so it should be looked at. Secondly, there have been too many changes to the immigration law—in fact, some of it is getting confused with terrorist law. It is an area that really should be sorted out, because there have been wholesale changes to immigration law over the years.

[Stephen Doughty]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I have made it clear to businesses in my constituency that a shortage of or challenge in getting labour is in no way an excuse for flouting immigration laws, and I do not in any way get a sense that any of them wish to do that. In fact, it is quite the opposite: there is wide concern on the issue of the immigration of skilled migrants to this country and ensuring that we have the right laws in place.

I want to concentrate on the two issues I mentioned near the start of my speech. A few themes have come out relating to the conduct of operations. Raids have occurred during busy periods, with diners being disturbed. Equipment has been left operating and staff have not been allowed to switch it off. I have heard of staff not being allowed to switch off woks, tandoors and the gas. Of course, significant stigma and embarrassment is caused, even when no offence has been committed. I am sorry to say so, but it appears that some very heavy-handed tactics have been used, and there have been repeat raids, despite the fact that the operations are supposedly intelligence-led.

I want to mention an example from my constituency about which I have been in dialogue with the Minister for Security and Immigration. Following an enforcement visit to a restaurant in my constituency on 7 November 2013, I was contacted by a number of concerned constituents—including members of my staff—who witnessed the events. I have since been engaged in to-and-fro correspondence with the Home Office that has not resolved the matter to my satisfaction, or, indeed, that of the business.

There was an operation by immigration officers at the premises at around 7.30 in the evening. As well as the restaurant, three of my constituents contacted me to share their concerns about how it was carried out. I would like to read out a couple of their statements. One said to me:

“I am currently sat in the restaurant and the Border Control burst in and told the manager to sit in the public seating area and not move. They then went into the kitchen and made the staff come into the public areas to interview them about their legal status. I think this is disgusting. The staff should have been afforded privacy and been interviewed with dignity. They disrupted the business and then left empty handed.”

Another witness said:

“Immigration officers entered the buildings and gathered the staff at the waiting area at the front of the restaurant. This took place while the restaurant had three or four tables occupied on a Thursday evening. What seemed particularly humiliating for the staff was the fact that they were interviewed in the shop window, so that passersby would be able to observe.”

That was despite there being

“a large number of telephone orders to be collected, and…a queue of customers lined up opposite the waiting area watching the interviews. I understand fully the seriousness of the operation, but I do not believe that questioning people in front of the public in this manner was acceptable and must have caused them much embarrassment.”

That is one of many examples that have been drawn to my attention and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli. Another, which I will keep anonymised, involved 13 immigration officers and two police officers attending a restaurant in which I have eaten a number of times. They were there from 6.30 to 9.30 in the evening. Allegedly, people were detained in a corridor and not allowed to switch off the gas, while a pencil was taken from a staff member with the suggestion that it might have been used as a weapon. Another allegation was that handcuffs were used. I have no way of independently verifying that but, unfortunately, given the number of examples cited, I am worried that there appears to be a trend in such operations. The witnesses I know are certainly absolutely truthful and would not want to mislead the House or, indeed, the authorities.

For the record, the dialogue with immigration officials in Cardiff to date has been welcome. Many of the restaurant owners and associations wanted that on the record, but the cancellation with a day’s notice of the attendance of senior officials at a meeting with me, other Members of this House and more than 30 restaurant owners from throughout Wales has not done a lot to continue that good and fruitful engagement. Despite repeated attempts, I have been unable to make contact with the officers who were due to attend.

In conclusion, I have three key points for the Minister to address: first, the conduct of the operations; secondly, the support for restaurateurs to help them to comply with the law, as they wish to; and, thirdly and most crucially at this time, reassurance that neither the sector nor specific restaurants are being targeted in any way.

Identity Documents (Home Office)

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mrs Main. I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am grateful for the chance to raise issues that are of great concern to me, my constituents and I think, given the number of examples passed to me in the past few days by other hon. Members, many others across the country.

The debate about immigration to this country is complex and multi-faceted. I do not intend to dwell on wider concerns about the system. I am sure that all Members, on both sides of the House, and members of the public with wide-ranging views on the nature and scale of immigration agree that, whatever system we have, it is crucial that it operates efficiently and responsibly and that those who participate are treated with dignity, respect and even-handedness.

I am pleased to see the Minister for Immigration here today. He will concede that we have exchanged a great deal of correspondence on individual cases. I give genuine thanks to the front-line Home Office officials who regularly engage with my office and other hon. Members. The fact that we often see him pursued by a queue of unhappy Members from all parties, including me, wherever he goes in the House is no reflection on the personal courtesy that he and his office have shown other Members and me in listening to our concerns.

--- Later in debate ---

On resuming—

[Stephen Doughty]

Although I appreciate the courtesy that the Minister and his officials have shown, the cases I will discuss today raise serious concerns about the competence of senior Home Office officials, the processes put in place and ultimately, I am sorry to say, ministerial oversight of the immigration system. Importantly, the cases do not merely relate to the soon-to-be-defunct United Kingdom Border Agency, but to the new immigration and visas directorate under Home Office control. I have come across numerous cases where documents, such as passports, birth certificates and travel documents, have been misplaced or permanently lost, which has led to lengthy delays, erroneous decisions, expensive appeals, tribunals and compensation payouts and a great deal of personal anguish for constituents, with results ranging from being unable to attend funerals of family members and being wrongly stigmatised as illegal immigrants, to being denied work, social security and the normal family life to which they are entitled. There is disturbing evidence that documents are not being opened or included in a person’s case, and wrong decisions may be made as a result.

The independent chief inspector of borders and immigration report in November 2012 found that at one point more than 150 boxes of post, including correspondence from applicants, MPs and their legal representatives, lay unopened. The independent chief inspector told the Select Committee on Home Affairs that inspectors had come across the problem of lost files “in every inspection”. Worryingly, he said that 7% of the 400 files sampled were incorrectly filed—in other words, not in the right place. He said that he

“would like to see a much more rigorous approach taken to data management and file management generally.”

He emphasised that part of the cultural problem was that staff at UKBA did not see the human faces behind the mounting files. At a time when numerous concerns are being raised about the integrity of our immigration system, such reports hardly inspire confidence. I hope that the Minister will be able to outline any progress made since the report and say whether he is satisfied with that progress.

I would like to highlight some specific areas of concern with clear examples to which I hope the Minister can respond. I have encountered a number of cases in which the Home Office has wrongly advised constituents that their documents have been lost, only to locate them subsequently on the premises, sometimes years after denying their presence. Constituents have advised me that in addition to spending time and energy pursuing these matters, they have been unable to enrol in university, accept job offers, travel for work or even manage daily affairs as a result of the loss.

One phrase that crops up frequently in such cases is that the documents were “with another team”. That was the experience of one of my constituents who submitted his passport and biometric residence card to support his children’s application for naturalisation. The Home Office website advises EEA nationals that they can expect to receive their documents within 10 working days. In order to ensure a speedy return, my constituent had taken the liberty of enclosing a self-addressed envelope affixed with a paid special delivery stamp and a covering letter requesting that the documents be returned promptly, as he is frequently required to travel overseas for business.

The Royal Mail tracking system confirmed that the parcel was received, but when my constituent contacted the Home Office, he was informed by an official that the package did not contain his passport and biometric card. That information later turned out to be untrue. I am pleased to say that eventually the documents were located and returned to my constituent, but unfortunately he was extremely frustrated by the incompetence that he had experienced and missed a business trip as a result of the misplacing of his passport and documents.

In another case, the Home Office advised me initially that it had returned my constituent’s documents 12 months ago, only to apologise eventually and confirm that it had in fact retained his documents following a failed application. In other cases, documents have been located years later in files archived in error. I have been told by a reputable organisation of a case involving a family granted settlement earlier this year who received their biometric residence permits but whose passports were not returned. They phoned the Home Office and submitted the return of documents form by e-mail. The Home Office advised that it had returned the documents but could not find the recorded delivery reference number. The family contacted their MP to try to find out what had happened. After repeated phone calls from May 2013 onwards, in which the MP’s office was also advised that records stated that the passports had been returned, the Home Office eventually agreed to recall the family’s paper file, which had been sent to storage. Lo and behold, the passports were found and returned to the family, but not until August 2013.

Such cases cause frustration and serious short-term consequences, but in other cases, recovery has not been possible, with much more serious implications. Asylum seekers and refugees are required to send their documentation, often including passports from their home country, birth certificates and education qualifications, to the Home Office as part of their asylum claim. Such documents are almost impossible to replace, particularly given the circumstances in which individuals have fled their original country. There is concern that where such crucial evidence is lost, erroneous decisions in either direction may be made. The Welsh Refugee Council has advised me of several cases in which asylum seekers’ files have been lost prior to the refusal of their application. That then affects their ability to return home voluntarily or even by forced removal, as many countries refuse to accept individuals without documentation who claim to be nationals of that country, leaving them in limbo.

In another case that was brought to my attention, an asylum seeker was advised that his passport would be retained following the refusal of his application in 2001. The individual appealed against the refusal of asylum and, after a series of mishaps and appeals, was finally granted indefinite leave under the legacy programme in 2011. However, although he provided the Home Office with a copy of its own letter confirming that it had retained his passport, it continued to deny any record of holding it. After the intervention of his MP, the Home Office finally admitted that it had lost his passport in 2012. Given the serious circumstances in which such individuals flee their home countries, what confidence does the Minister have in the system, which is supposed to support and protect some of the most vulnerable people in the world?

I am sorry to say that the situation for many other non-asylum applicants is no better. In one particularly serious case with which the Minister is familiar, the former UK Border Agency returned the documents of my constituents Mr Conde and Ms Mane to their former address, rather than to their solicitors as they had requested. It was then impossible for them to retrieve their documents, as they had no access to the address. As a result, Mr Conde was unable to see his sister before she passed away or even to attend her funeral.

In another case, despite the fact that my constituent, Ms Chekera, informed the UKBA of a change of address and received a written acknowledgement, her details were not updated on the system and letters requesting that she enrol her biometric data were therefore delivered to the wrong address. The UKBA subsequently voided her application because she had supposedly not provided the information and returned her supporting documents to her old address. Because she was aware of the delays in processing applications, she did not contact the UKBA to ask for an update on her application until some months after the initial mistake. She was then devastated to discover that unbeknownst to her, she had been living and working in the UK illegally for several months, with potentially serious ramification for both her and her employer.

Employers have a statutory responsibility to ensure that people have the right to work in this country, but to open up the risk of stigmatising people who have the right to be here but are missing crucial documentation through no fault of their own is unfair and unjust. I hope that the Minister will concede that it risks diverting resources and attention from tackling those who are attempting to abuse the system.

In another case brought to my attention by a Member of this House, the Home Office lost an individual’s identity documents, meaning that he was unable to prove his identity for work purposes and thus remained unemployed despite wanting to work and faced a prolonged risk of destitution. The Welsh Refugee Council has raised with me cases in which the loss of documents has prevented settled individuals from demonstrating their right to social security. In one case, the Home Office lost the birth certificate of an applicant’s child, meaning that the applicant’s access to child benefit payments was seriously delayed, resulting in significant financial hardship.

Those are the immediate human consequences of incompetence. I hope that the Minister will issue an apology to all of them on the Government’s behalf. I would also like to challenge him on a number of other points. First, with regard to compensation for individuals when there has been a mistake, claims for redress should be considered in accordance with the “Managing Public Money” standards guidance issued by the Treasury, which emphasises that Departments should attempt to return the individual to the position that they would have been in had there been no maladministration on the Government’s part. More often than not, that is simply not the case. Many are left significantly out of pocket as a direct result of incompetence or mistakes.

Although the documents lost in many of the cases that I encountered are irreplaceable, where it is possible to source a replacement, applicants face the challenge of arranging and financing the replacement of their documents up front and then submitting claims and supporting evidence to request reimbursement. I find it extraordinary that according to a recent parliamentary answer, the Home Office does not readily hold data about the total compensation paid as a result of losing passports and other travel documents. I can assure the Minister that it is an expensive pursuit. As he is aware, the constituents that I mentioned earlier, Mr Conde and Ms Mane, have spent well over £1,500 to date on arranging replacement documents, but they have yet to be reimbursed a single penny. Other constituents are in a similar position. Does the Minister think that it is reasonable to expect people to resort to taking out loans or enduring financial hardship to finance the cost of replacing documents that the Home Office has lost, then to spend months trying to reclaim the money, while never being sure that they will regain the full amount?

The second issue is how documents are sent through Royal Mail. When documents have gone missing in transit and the Home Office is not responsible for the loss, it usually advises the applicant to pursue the matter with Royal Mail directly. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to retrieve the documents, so the applicant is tasked with claiming compensation from Royal Mail.

Royal Mail advises customers that its special delivery service is

“ideal for sending valuable items”

and includes compensation cover for loss and damage up to a maximum of £500. However, it has come to my attention that the Home Office often returns people’s documents to them by recorded delivery rather than special delivery. Recorded delivery includes compensation cover only up to a maximum of £50, meaning that when documents are lost due to an error by Royal Mail—not by the Home Office in these cases, I concede—the maximum amount of compensation that the applicant can receive is £50, regardless of the cost of replacing the documents. That is a drop in the ocean compared with the total expense incurred. Is the Minister aware of any plans, or does he have any plans, to review the policy and consider making the system safer and more secure for the constituents who use it?

A number of examples raise serious questions about whether the Home Office is acting in accordance with data protection legislation. In one particularly serious case, I have had to raise the matter with the Information Commissioner as well as the Minister. I was approached recently by an honest and careful constituent whose documents had been returned, but along with them was the original birth certificate of an unrelated child. My constituent is from Sierra Leone and has no children, whereas the birth certificate belonged to a child born in a different part of the UK to Nigerian parents. It eventually ended up in my office.

The Immigration Law Practitioners Association has advised me of a similar case in which an Algerian national visited her legal representatives clutching correspondence that she had received from the former UKBA, despite the fact that she had requested all correspondence from the agency to be sent directly to her representatives. The correspondence had been sent to an address at which she was no longer resident. Most disturbingly, it contained a passport and other documentation belonging to a Liberian man whom she had never heard of rather than her child’s birth certificate, as the covering letter stated. Understandably, she was concerned that her own original documentation had been sent to some arbitrary and possibly untraceable location. Were it not for her honesty, the passport and documents of the Liberian could have ended up elsewhere.

Another colleague advised me that the Home Office recently wrote to a constituent of his, amalgamating the constituent’s case details with that of another unrelated individual. The Minister is aware that applicants are required to provide highly sensitive information in such applications, ranging from family and financial circumstances to allegations of torture, violence and persecution if, for example, the application is for asylum or humanitarian protection. This information is given on the understanding that it will be treated in confidence and held securely. It is therefore extraordinary that breaches such as this have occurred.

I wrote to the Minister about my constituents’ experiences and the wider problems of data protection on 18 September, but have yet to receive a response. I hope that the Minister will comment on that. I welcome his wider reflections on those serious cases. What discussions has he had with the Information Commissioner and senior officials in his Department?

I could go on—I have a litany of other cases—but I hope that, as I have highlighted a significant number of cases, as have other hon. Members and leading organisations working in the sector, the Minister will concede that what I have described appears to be a systemic issue, in some parts, rather than a few isolated incidents. In that regard, I was hardly reassured by some answers given to other hon. Members and me in a recent roundtable by a Home Office director, Sarah Rapson. I welcome outreach by the Minister and his officials—it is good to see that happening—but I do not feel that the system is improving. I have not seen signs of improvement in those cases. The number of people coming to me with cases suggests that there is a serious issue.

These cases clearly have serious and sometimes devastating implications for the individuals concerned and raise wider concerns about the integrity of the immigration decision process. It is my sincere hope that, as a result of my highlighting these cases, the visas and immigration directorate at the Home Office will undertake an urgent review into the problems I have discussed—not just the specifics, but systemic issues—and institute an effective system to ensure the safe receipt, storage and return of documents in a timely fashion; to address the massive backlog of cases; and to re-establish parliamentary and public confidence in a crucial aspect of our immigration system.

[Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)]

I remind the Minister that the debate is now scheduled to finish at 5.7 pm.

[The Minister for Immigration (Mr Mark Harper)]

I reiterate what the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) said; it is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Main. I do not think that I have done so, either, if I remember accurately. That is clearly an oversight by the House scheduling authorities and it is a great pleasure to redress it.

The hon. Gentleman raises a number of cases. It is difficult to comment on the specific cases for which he has not furnished the details, but I will try to comment on the general points. I thank him for what he said about the front-line Home Office staff and the MP account manager team that supports his office. I know from conversations we have had that it does its best to support his office, as it supports other hon. Members. We have been trying to put a great deal of effort particularly into supporting Members of Parliament. That does not mean that there are no issues, but in terms of the ability for MPs to get swift answers on operational matters and to resolve issues, both the director general, Sarah Rapson, whom the hon. Gentleman mentioned, and myself have made it clear in the organisation that, when an MP account manager is pressing for information or action, they are acting on my behalf and that of the director general to resolve the issue for hon. Members. That message is getting home. MP account managers are therefore empowered to seek answers from the Department. Of course, if hon. Members are not happy with the response from the MP account manager, or if the MP account manager has not delivered it, they have the option of raising the matter directly with me, as the hon. Gentleman is doing today.

Before I move on to the care and custody of documents, let me respond to the hon. Gentleman’s mentioning the time taken to make decisions and how many cases are ongoing. That is a good point, because a number of the hon. Gentleman’s examples stem from the length of time that cases took to decide. Some cases were a result of the backlog of lengthy decision making in asylum cases. Clearly, if somebody’s case file is being held and the arrangements take the best part of a decade, it is not surprising that mistakes and errors happen with paperwork. One solution is to make faster decisions and return the documents in a timely fashion.

The hon. Gentleman knows—I have been frank about it in the main Chamber—that in the 2012-13 financial year what was the UK Border Agency in its in-country operations, which are those within the United Kingdom, where a lot of these issues stem from, did not do a good job at making timely decisions and we had a backlog of cases. I am pleased that in this financial year we have made significant progress, although we are not all the way there, in reducing that backlog to the extent that we have a relatively small number of weeks of cases on hand and we are largely, although not entirely, within our service standards. That important factor will enable us to both make more timely decisions and deal with issues about managing paper and valuable documents.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned valuable documents, including passports and biometric residence permits. We take the custody and care of the documents seriously. For context, I shall set out some data. We deal with about 1 million in-country applications every year for study, work or refugee status. Last year, we received 469 complaints about the loss of valuable documents—down from the year before. In about 42% of those cases, the Home Office was partially or fully responsible. Yes, that is 469 too many, because in an ideal world we would not lose any documents and documents would not go astray, but that is less than 0.02% of cases, which, putting it in context, suggests that we are not doing too bad a job. However, that can cause a great deal of annoyance and inconvenience in each individual case, and in a case that the hon. Gentleman highlighted, which I will come to, there was a certain amount of distress for the constituents concerned.

I hope that the hon. Gentleman is pleased that we have recognised that we need to do things differently, particularly in respect of managing valuable documents. He spoke about ensuring that staff are properly trained and that they complete the mandatory training on protecting personal information, not just to be aware of the procedures and policies, but to understand the consequences of the loss of such documents. He was right to say that it is important that staff are aware of the people behind the cases, not just of cases to be processed. That mentality will enable people to take more care.

The second thing that we are doing, which I think will help, is that, having listened to customer feedback on our holding on to valuable documents until we have made a final decision, we are moving to system in which we will only retain copies of the documents once we have validated them. Customers will send in their application with their valuable document—their passport or biometric residence permit, or whatever—and once we have established the bona fides of the document and made a note of them, we will take a copy of that document and return it to the person at that point, as opposed to hanging on to it all the way through the process. That will help, because we will return the documents on a more timely basis, so reducing the opportunity for loss.

The final thing that we are doing—this comes back to some comments that the chief inspector made—is that, rather than maintaining valuable documents at different locations around the country, with what should be standard but in practice turned out to be variable care, we will record and track the receipt of those documents at a central location, where we will manage and store them and where people with expertise will take proper care of them and look after them. When we hold documents, we will hold them in a more secure and better-managed environment.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned the postal system and correctly said that we always send documents by recorded delivery. He made a fair point about how Royal Mail compensation for recorded delivery compares with that for special delivery. I will look at our strategy there, at the cost of those two services and whether the point that he raises in practice—it is clearly a theoretical problem—relates to cases where that has been an issue. It would help if he told me about specific cases, if he has not done so previously, because I could use those examples to see whether they raise wider issues. I am happy to do that, because he is right. Clearly, if Royal Mail loses valuable documents and we and his constituent have done everything right, Royal Mail is responsible for the compensation. We must consider whether the compensation that Royal Mail pays for the service that is used is adequate for the task. That is a perfectly reasonable point, and I will take it away. Whether or not I decide that we need to make a change, I will write to him and place a copy of the letter in the Library, so that other Members may know what I have concluded.

The hon. Gentleman also talked about compensation where we are at fault. My understanding is that, in the case that I considered, we will pay compensation and refund the cost of replacing the documents, including associated costs such as travel. I accept his point that that requires the person to deal with the situation and claim back the money, but the flipside—he talked about managing public money—is that we also have a responsibility to ensure that, where we compensate people, the claim is genuine, which it is in most cases, but we have had examples in which people claimed costs that they did not incur. That is why we insist that people reasonably evidence the costs before we pay them. My understanding is that we will pay not only the direct costs but the associated costs, including travel.

Where we find that we have lost a document, we have a departmental security unit that considers the root cause of the problem. Was it human error, or was it just poor management? Is there a systemic process involved in that part of the operation that we need to fix by putting something in place?

The hon. Gentleman raised two specific cases involving his constituents, and I have some information on those cases. He did not name the constituent who was sent the birth certificate of an unconnected child in her application for leave, so I will not name her, either. We are grateful to her for returning the document, and I confirm, as we have confirmed to her, that the document had no bearing on the decision-making process. Such things happen infrequently, but we are continuing to investigate how it happened, and we will take appropriate steps. As the hon. Gentleman has raised the matter, I will ensure that I am briefed on the appropriate steps that are taken in that case.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned a specific constituent, whom he named—Mr Conde. Frankly, it has taken too long for us to reach a compensation agreement with Mr Conde. I confirm that I have investigated the matter. I gave officials instructions to address the situation, and I confirm that today we will be dispatching a letter to Mr Conde with what I think, based on what he is claiming, is a much more reasonable offer of compensation, which I hope he will find acceptable.

After this debate, I will write to the hon. Gentleman with details of the offer. I did not write to him beforehand because I wanted to see whether he would raise any other concerns. The letter will set out what has happened in the case, what we have offered and the thinking behind it. I hope the offer is acceptable and that we will be able to resolve the matter. I have asked officials to consider the matter not only by the book, but in terms of what is reasonable, particularly as his constituent was unable to attend his sister’s funeral, which clearly caused him significant distress. I hope that my response is helpful in that specific case.

[Stephen Doughty]

I appreciate the Minister’s personal efforts on those cases, and I look forward to seeing the replies.

On compensation in general, it would be helpful for hon. Members and members of the public to see the scale and extent of the problem. Will the Minister furnish us with a detailed figure on the overall compensation paid, so that we may understand the scale of the problem?

[Mr Harper]

I listened carefully to the hon. Gentleman’s speech, and he referred to a parliamentary question. One of the challenges, of course, is that this is always a balance of resources. When answering parliamentary questions, we have to consider how much resource we have to put into extracting the information. He will know, as I know to my cost, that the systems in the Home Office for recording and tracking information are not the best in the world. There is always a balance. The information is available somewhere in the Department, but pulling that information together from multiple systems can be very costly.

The answer to the hon. Gentleman’s parliamentary question stated that the information is not held centrally. I cannot remember whether we simply did not have the information centrally or whether pulling together the information would have cost more than the prescribed cost threshold for answering the question. I will go away and see what information is readily available on overall compensation. That information might not be brilliant, but let me see what is available. Again, I will write to him either with what is available or, if the information is not any better than the parliamentary answer, I will tell him so. Again, I will place a copy of that letter in the Library.

I have one-and-a-bit minutes left. I agree with the hon. Gentleman that the care of valuable documents is important. I have set out some significant process improvements that are being introduced by the Department and UK Visas and Immigration in our in-country business to safeguard those documents better, to make faster decisions and to ensure that there are fewer issues. He raised a sensible point on how we transfer those documents through Royal Mail, and I will consider whether the compensation is appropriate in that specific example, which I thank him for raising. I hope that we can resolve his constituent’s case satisfactorily. I will write to him after the debate, and he will receive his and his constituent’s letter in the next few days. I am grateful to him for raising those issues today.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Monday 15th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

T9. What consideration are Ministers giving to additional resourcing for South Wales police in relation to the pressures on Cardiff as a capital city and the apparent discrepancy of upwards of £1 million with other capital cities across the UK?

[Damian Green]

I have heard these representations from various representative areas in Cardiff before, and as the hon. Gentleman will know, successive Governments have not thought that a particular grant should be made. I hope that he will join me in congratulating his police force in south Wales on the 5% fall in crime in the 12 months to December 2012.