Member

I turn finally to Amendments 58 and 80, which relate to the BNO route for people from Hong Kong. The Government are firmly committed to supporting the Hong Kong community in the UK and to maintaining the BNO route, which will continue to welcome Hongkongers. Our position remains, however, that the route is already implemented by the Immigration Rules, which are a long-established and flexible mechanism and, in the Government’s view, therefore, a better mechanism for managing immigration policy. For example, should the situation in Hong Kong deteriorate further, the Immigration Rules would give us the opportunity to react quickly. Implementing the route via regulations would reduce that flexibility, and we are concerned that it could constrain the Government’s ability to respond quickly to the sort of events I have described.