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5 Oral Answers<br />
26 OCTOBER 2009<br />
Oral Answers<br />
6<br />
leaving people to have to go from either Wetherby or<br />
Birmingham to parts of Cumbria to protect the public<br />
and ensure that crimes are solved? Will he reflect on it—<br />
Mr. Speaker: Order—[Interruption.] I am not being<br />
very kind at all. When I say “Order”, the hon. Gentleman<br />
must resume his seat. We have had an enjoyable Cook’s<br />
tour, but it is time for the answer.<br />
Mr. Campbell: I commend my hon. Friend on the<br />
inventive way in which he got the Forensic Science<br />
Service into his question. However, I point out to him<br />
that, if we are to ensure that there is a service to support<br />
not only business but the whole community in the fight<br />
against crime, we must have an efficient and effective<br />
service. That is what the transformation programme is<br />
all about.<br />
David T.C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con): Following on<br />
from the previous question, the Minister still has not<br />
explained to us how on earth crime is going to be solved<br />
within four hours and crime scenes visited within four<br />
hours when laboratories at Chorley, Birmingham, and<br />
Chepstow in my constituency, are being closed down.<br />
What is the point of giving money to small businesses if<br />
crime is out of control because we do not have the<br />
forensic science laboratories to catch the perpetrators<br />
who are responsible?<br />
Mr. Campbell: It is essential that we have schemes,<br />
such as that which the hon. Gentleman mentioned, to<br />
ensure that crime does not get out of control. However,<br />
he will know that the transformation programme took<br />
all those issues into consideration, and the model that<br />
the Forensic Science Service is moving to will ensure<br />
that it provides throughout the country the efficient and<br />
effective service for which he looks.<br />
Work Visas<br />
4. Harry Cohen (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): If he<br />
will make it his policy to allow those whose<br />
applications for work visas are under consideration to<br />
work until final determination of their case is made.<br />
[295128]<br />
The Minister for Borders and Immigration (Mr. Phil<br />
Woolas): Those who have leave to work in the <strong>United</strong><br />
<strong>Kingdom</strong> at the time that they apply for an extension<br />
may carry on working until their new application is<br />
decided. Those who do not have leave to work in the<br />
UK when they apply for permission to work must wait<br />
until their application is decided. We have no plans to<br />
change that.<br />
Harry Cohen: My advice surgeries are filled with<br />
people who are going to be granted the right to stay but<br />
are not allowed to work. If we take Mrs. Pierre-Louis,<br />
who is married to a British citizen and has an eight-year-old<br />
British son, we find that her only mistake was to fill in<br />
the wrong form at the Home Office. She has now<br />
received the sack, even though her employer, the council,<br />
acknowledges that she is an excellent care home worker.<br />
What do the Government have to say to people, such as<br />
Mrs. Pierre-Louis, who lose their jobs; and why is the<br />
policy implemented so harshly against such people?<br />
Mr. Woolas: If there is a particular case that my hon.<br />
Friend would like me to take up, I shall look into it.<br />
However, the application for the permit is due within<br />
three months of its ending, and on this matter we have<br />
set a target of achieving decisions on 75 per cent. of<br />
applications within four weeks. Mr. Speaker, I can<br />
report to you that we are achieving decisions on 94 per<br />
cent. of applications within four weeks.<br />
Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): How can any of us<br />
have any confidence that the UK Border Agency is fit<br />
for purpose? I had at my constituency surgery on Friday<br />
someone who lives in my constituency and who has<br />
been waiting for nine years for the UK Border Agency<br />
and its predecessors simply to process his first application<br />
for consideration as a refugee. Am I the only person in<br />
the House who has completely lost the will to live in<br />
respect of the UK Border Agency having any competence<br />
to deal with work permits, asylum applications or anything<br />
else? This is an organisation—<br />
Mr. Speaker: Order. I think we have got the drift of it.<br />
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman.<br />
Mr. Woolas: I hope that the hon. Gentleman has not<br />
lost the will to live. I do not know the details of that<br />
case, but my experience, having been in this job for more<br />
than a year, is that things are often not as they appear at<br />
first glance. We are dealing with the backlog very successfully<br />
now, and I point out that our decision rate is much<br />
quicker than it was 12 years ago. Resources are being<br />
put into place, decisions are being taken and cases are<br />
coming to light. I ask him to look into that case, and if<br />
he wants me to take it up, I will do so.<br />
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton, North) (Lab): I agree strongly<br />
with the thrust of the question from my hon. Friend the<br />
Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Harry Cohen), but<br />
does my hon. Friend the Minister agree that we should<br />
seek to ensure that all immigrant workers are paid the<br />
minimum wage, so that they are not treated as a pool of<br />
cheap migrant labour and so that existing trade union<br />
agreements are not undermined?<br />
Mr. Woolas: It is very important that this point is<br />
taken on board, because this country welcomes legal<br />
migrant workers; they contribute to our economy very<br />
significantly. In order to protect those people, they have<br />
the same rights as domestic workers. Illegal migrants,<br />
and legal migrants who are paid below the minimum<br />
wage, undermine confidence in the migration and minimum<br />
wage systems. The exploitation of any worker is not<br />
acceptable to this Government.<br />
Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con): Over the<br />
weekend, we have heard some pretty controversial reported<br />
comments by a former adviser to the Government about<br />
their immigration policy. May I invite the Minister to<br />
put the record straight? What was the motivation behind<br />
the very rapid increase in immigration under this<br />
Government?<br />
Mr. Woolas: If one takes a responsible and reasonable<br />
look at the statistics, one will see that it was an earlier<br />
Act that brought about significant increases in immigration<br />
in this country. The most significant milestone in the<br />
history of migration policy since the second world war,