Author: parliamentaryunit

Illegal Migration Bill: Archbishop of Canterbury tables amendments on strategy to tackle human trafficking

During a committee debate on 14th June 2023, the Archbishop of Canterbury tabled two amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill. The first amendment would insert a new clause to the bill requiring the Secretary of State to have a ten year strategy for collaborating internationally to tackle human trafficking into the UK. The Archbishop also spoke in favour of a supplementary amendment, 144A:

The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I introduce Amendment 139C, tabled in my name, and Amendment 144A, which is consequential to it. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Blunkett, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for co-signing it.

The amendment requires the Secretary of State to prepare a 10-year strategy for tackling human trafficking, in collaboration with international partners on this issue. A statement of policies for implementing the strategy must be presented to Parliament within a year of the Bill becoming law and every following year. Each time that a statement is made, an opportunity must be given for both Houses to debate and vote on it via a Motion for resolution.

The amendment, and my second amendment, relating to a 10-year strategy for an international refugee policy, are far from wrecking or negative amendments but seek to improve the Bill, as is our duty and right in this House. As I said at Second Reading, we need a Bill to reform migration and we need to stop the boats, but this Bill does not contain within it a sense of the long- term and global nature of the challenges that we face. To deal with global challenges, we need to engage in international collaboration towards global solutions.

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Illegal Migration Bill: Bishop of Durham supports amendment in the name of the Bishop of London to protect victims of trafficking, and tables amendment on conditions in immigration detention centres

On 14th June 2023, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill in Committee. The Bishop of Durham spoke in support of an amendment tabled by Lord Alton of Liverpool and in the name of the Bishop of London and other peers. The amendment “would prevent immigration data being shared for the purposes of section 2(1) about a victim or witness of crime who reports an offence. This is to ensure victims are able to approach the authorities for assistance without fear of removal under section 2(1) as a result of that contact or resultant data sharing with immigration enforcement.”

The Bishop of Durham also spoke to his amendment 139B during the same speech, an amendment which “would give the Secretary of State a statutory duty to implement all ‘recommendations of the Chief Inspector of Prisons in relation to immigration detention’ centres within six months, strengthening the independent external monitoring role of the chief inspector.”

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I will speak first to Amendment 139A, to which my right reverend friend the Bishop of London has added her name, and then I will turn to Amendment 139B in my name. I remind the Committee of my interests as laid out regarding RAMP and Reset.

As we have heard, Amendment 139A would prevent data about a victim of or a witness to a crime being automatically shared for the purpose of immigration enforcement. My right reverend friend the Bishop of London sponsored a similar amendment during the passage of the Domestic Abuse Act, and this issue remains hugely important.

Imkaan reports that more than 90% of abused women with insecure immigration status had their abusers use the threat of their removal from the UK to dissuade them from reporting their abuse. It is deeply disturbing that any person would be deterred from reporting a crime that they have been subjected to or have witnessed because they believe that their data will be passed on to immigration officials for the purposes of immigration control. This is especially pertinent for a domestic abuse victim, a modern slavery victim, someone who has been trafficked or someone who has been subject to violence.

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Illegal Migration Bill: Bishop of Durham advocates for right to work for those seeking asylum

During a debate on the Illegal Migration Bill on 14th June 2023, the Bishop of Durham spoke in support of an amendment tabled by Baroness Ludford and in the name of the Bishop of Chelmsford, which “would require the Secretary of State to make regulations enabling asylum seekers to work once they have been waiting for a decision on their claim for 3 months or more.”

The Bishop also raised a point of clarification to Baroness Stowell of Beeston regarding people out of work and claiming benefits:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I support Amendment 133 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford. My right reverend friend the Bishop of Chelmsford has added her name to it. She regrets that she cannot be here today; she is actually working with the Woolf Institute’s independent commission on refugee integration. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, and other noble Lords who have eloquently made the case for the amendment already.

As it stands, the Bill makes the case for a right to work for some asylum seekers more important than ever. Of course, it is a theme that has come up already. There is little prospect of potential removals being able to keep pace with the large population of asylum seekers who will be deemed inadmissible in the future, and currently we have a huge backlog. We risk the creation of a permanent underclass. Apart from the deleterious effects, that drives some of those people into the grey and black economies because they are not allowed to work openly.

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Illegal Migration Bill: Bishop of Durham supports amendments focused on transparency

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”.

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Bishop of Durham asks about food aid to Ethiopia

The Bishop of Durham asked a question on diversion of food aid and use of international organisations to deliver aid during a debate on protecting the integrity of UK food aid to Ethiopia on 14th June 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, it happens time and again that Governments start diverting food aid and other aid away from the people who need it on the ground, and time and again we have learned that international organisations such as Christian Aid and the Red Cross, and local faith communities from all faiths, are often the very best at delivering aid and making sure it gets to the people most in need. Can the Minister tell us what is being done to try to get around the Ethiopian Government and use those organisations?

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Illegal Migration Bill: Bishop of Durham moves amendment to exclude certain groups from cap on safe and legal migration routes

On 14th June 2023, the House of Lords debated the Illegal Migration Bill in the fifth day of committee. The Bishop of Durham moved his amendment 128B to the bill, which would “exclude the schemes for those displaced from Ukraine, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Hong Kong BN(O) routes from the safe and legal routes cap.”

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I remind the Committee of my interests with the RAMP project and as a trustee of Reset, as laid out in the register. In moving Amendment 128B, I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Stroud and Lady Lister, and the noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, for their support, which, in itself, I hope demonstrates that this whole business of safe and legal routes is a matter about which there is common mind across the House and that we all agree that we need safe and legal routes. I am therefore looking forward to the next couple of hours—as I anticipate it might be—as we explore these issues, because this is really a debate about what is the best, how and when.

This amendment is a straightforward and well-intentioned addition to ensure that any cap placed on safe and legal routes excludes current named schemes already in operation. I hope, therefore, that it is a simple amendment that the Government will be able to accept to help provide clarity. Before I explain the rationale behind the amendment, I should like to comment on the importance of safe and legal routes. Since the pandemic, and following the end of the vulnerable persons resettlement scheme, I have despaired as I have witnessed the breakdown of our contribution to global efforts to support refugees to find sanctuary. 

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Bishop of Leicester asks about the UK Inter-Faith Network

The Bishop of Leicester received the following written answer on 14th June 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Leicester asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) the value of the Inter-Faith Network, and (2) the risks of withdrawing funding from the Network.

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Votes: Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023:

On 13th June 2023, the House of Lords debated a motion to approve the Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023. A vote was held on an amendment to the motion, in which a Bishop took part:

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Financial Services and Markets Bill: Archbishop of Canterbury supports effort to prevent changes that would go against Banking Standards Commission Report

On 13th June 2023, the House of Lords debated the Financial Services & Markets Bill in the third day of the report stage. During the debate, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke in support of an amendment to the bill tabled by Baroness Kramer that would “prevent the Government from making substantive changes to the policy on ring-fencing and SMCR by statutory instrument, and would prevent policy from being amended in a way that departs from the report from the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.”

The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I have joined the noble Baroness in supporting her Amendment 106, as I did her two amendments on this topic in Committee. This amendment seeks to prevent change which goes against the two years of work of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which looked in detail at both issues and produced its final report, Changing Banking for Good, 10 years ago. I declare an interest: I sat on the commission along with the noble Baroness.

As I said in Committee on 21 March, the underlying motivation of this amendment is to ask us not to forget the hard lessons learned after the 2008-09 financial crash, for which the whole country, especially the poorest, paid, then and to this day. Recent events show that the memory in the markets is strong, even if it is not in the Government. Alarm spreads easily.

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Votes: Financial Services & Markets Bill

On 13th June 2023, the House of Lords debated the Financial Services & Markets Bill in its third day of the report stage. Votes were held on two amendments to the bill, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury took part.

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