Member

These amendments are about maintaining the tools the Government need to act decisively on the basis of authoritative information and without being hamstrung by vexatious delays. We cannot afford to slip into a system in which removals are paralysed by endless backlogs, where spurious challenges proliferate and where factual determinations are relitigated to no end. We struck the right balance when these provisions were first drafted: fair but firm; open to genuine challenge but closed to tactical obstruction. If the Government truly believe that removing these powers will have no adverse effect, they must explain why to the Committee. Otherwise, they should reintroduce them, so that those who they themselves have determined have no right to remain can be removed swiftly and the integrity of our immigration system can be preserved. I beg to move.