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Oral Answers
24 APRIL 1986
Сла
25% Oral Answers
21294 (613
of part Waddington: I cannot answer the second the hon. Gentleman's question. However, I shall write to him and give him what information I can. On the first part of the question, one must neither exaggerate the extent of the problem nor minimise it. I must point out that no fewer than 1,280 overstayers were investigated and indentified last year.
Mr. Watts: Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that without a complete check on re-embarkation, it is impossible to know the size of the problem of overstaying? In view of his recent written answer to me which showed that only 5 per cent. of visitors are so recorded, does he think that it is time that we took firmer measures to ensure the re-embarkation of those who enter as visitors?
Mr. Waddington: The number of people involved is the main problem. Six million people were admitted as visitors in 1984 and millions of people go through immigration control as they leave the country and no matter how diligent the immigration officer is, he cannot always spot that someone who passes him was admitted to the country on check-out conditions. We have to be selective and follow up the cases where we have reason to believe that there has been a breach of the law and overstaying.
Mr. Meadowcroft: How many of those people who were refused leave to enter but given temporary admission actually absconded?
Mr. Waddington: I do not have figures before me now, but they have been provided before when questions on that specific point were raised. I am prepared to write to the hon. Gentleman to give him the information that he requires.
Mr. Budgen: Will it ever be possible to deal with the problem of overstaying without introducing a system based upon identity cards?
Mr. Waddington: Many people in this country would be very reluctant to see the introduction of identity cards. The decision to abolish the use of identity cards was received with loud acclaim and we would have to be very careful before reintroducing them.
Prisoners (Medical Condition)
Janner asked the Secretary of State for the Department whether he has completed his consideration of advice to prison authorities and guidance todical officers given by his Department, following his Consideration of the case of Kevin Capenhurst.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Mellor): We shall be Issuing additional guidance in the near future to governors and medical officers of all Prison department establish- ments. This will remind them of the need to give prompt consideration to the possibility of special remission of sentence under the royal prerogative of mercy for prisoners Who are suffering from terminal illness or are bedridden Or similarly incapacitated. I will place a copy of that guidance in the Library when it is issued.
Mr. Janner: I thank the Minister for that helpful reply and I am glad that at last some step is to be taken in this matter. However, is the Minister aware that a reminder to medical officers is seldom sufficient to achieve the
required result, and that what is needed is that the Minister himself should be informed when one of the very few prisoners who are terminally ill is refused permission to go home or elsewhere to die in dignity? When will he institute instructions that he should be informed about such cases?
Mr. Mellor: I should like to stress two points to the hon. and learned Gentleman whose interest in these matters is well known to me. First, the guidance note which will be sent out will make some alterations that will be of assistance to ensure that these cases are dealt with even more effectively in future than they have been.
Secondly, on the hon. and learned Gentleman's point about Minister's being notified, I am anxious not to establish bureaucratic procedures which will slow down and not speed up the process of releasing people in genuine cases. Where there are cases of difficulty, these should be reported immediately to Ministers.
Hong Kong
4. Mr. Ashley asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on the proposed Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order.
Mr. Waddington: The Legislative Council made representations asking for an endorsement about visits in the British national (overseas) passport and it asked that British citizenship should be granted to former service men in Hong Kong and to British dependent territories citizens who were not ethnically Chinese. My right hon. Friend announced the Government's response yesterday in reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, East (Mr. Moynihan).
Mr. Ashley: Is the Minister aware that China understandably refused to grant citizenship to non-Chinese a British residents in Hong Kong because they are responsibility? Does he accept that it is outrageous and as the unreasonable for the Government to refuse Home Secretary has refused-British citizenship to that group of people? We simply cannot use people when it suits our purpose and then discard them when it does not. Is he aware that these 11,500 people will become stateless unless the Government change their mind? May we have some reconsideration of the Government's decision?
Mr. Waddington: The right hon. Gentleman has raised a number of points. First, the Chinese Government have confirmed that non-Chinese who meet the legal requirements under the Chinese nationality law may apply for Chinese nationality and that such cases will be dealt with by the appropriate authorities. Giving the non-ethnic Chinese British citizenship would not secure for them what they want the right of abode in Hong Kong. They will not be left stateless. All British dependent territory citizens will be entitled to BNO status, and those who do not apply and have no other nationality will become BOCs, a status which will also be available to their children and grandchildren.
Mr. Stanbrook: Is my hon. and learned Friend aware that the category of British nationality known as British a fundamentally dependent territory citizenship is unsatisfactory method of dealing with the problem and that, after 1997, the numbers in that particular category
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