On 14th June 2023, during a committee debate on the Illegal Migration Bill, the Bishop of Durham spoke in support of a number of amendments designed to ensure transparency of reporting regarding the success of the bill:
The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, the Minister ought to welcome Amendments 132, 134 and 135, because they simply ask for transparency of reporting back on the success of the Bill. The introduction says:
“The purpose of this Act is to prevent and deter unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes”.
Most of the arguments have been around the Government’s conviction that this is the right way to stop the boats. Many of us in this Committee believe that it will not stop the boats, that we will end up with large numbers of people being detained for indefinite periods and that it will cost a huge amount of money.
I quite happily accept that the Minister will probably say that practically these amendments cannot work with one month and might need a different timescale and so on, but they are basically saying, “Please report that this is doing what the Bill set out to do”. Really, I cannot see how the Government can object to being required to report on their own successes.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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