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Mrs. Gillan: I am listening very carefully to the hon. Gentleman and I have great sympathy with the points he is making, which are similar to those that I made. Will he reconfirm that he is also concerned about the fact that we need 700,000 science students to reach the Lisbon goal and it does not look as if we will do so? We will certainly not achieve that goal if there is a disincentive to international students to come to this country to read science.
Dr. Harris: I certainly share that view. In respect of the Lisbon agreement, the Government's targets fall short of what was agreed at Lisbon in any event. Whether or not Lisbon is realistic, and although the Government stand by it despite their own provisions falling short, the European Union recognises that to be able to compete a country must have a science base and therefore thriving science departments.
The accuracy of visa decisions is a key point of the amendments. I touched on the matter yesterday, but I want to put on the record some of the remarkable figures in the Library's paper of 30 June. In 2003–04 entry clearance officers and visa processing centres around the world received 76,357 applications for settlement in the UK and 2.1 million non-settlement applications, of which 1.6 million were applications for visitor visas. Overall, 81 per cent. of settlement applications and 82 per cent. of non-settlement applications were approved; 15 per cent. of the 2.2 million entry clearance applications received in 2003–04 were made in three visa offices in south Asia—Islamabad, Mumbai and New Delhi, and in those three there were more than 100,000.
The outcome of appeals to immigration adjudicators by category is remarkable. In 2003, 21,000 principal applicants who had been refused entry clearance appealed to immigration adjudicators, of which 11,000—53 per cent.—were subsequently
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granted entry clearance. The success rate was considerably higher for asylum and other immigration, non-entry clearance, appeals. The figures for refusal of entry clearance show not just that a significant proportion—more than half—of appeals are allowed but that that proportion is increasing. In 1997, 30.5 per cent. of appeals against refusal of entry clearance were allowed; in 2001 it had increased to 41.1 per cent. and in 2003, which is the last year for which the document from which I am reading has figures, it went up to 52.7 per cent. That is a remarkable figure—it is why there has been so much criticism of the quality of initial decisions. I accept that not all appeals were allowed because the quality of the decision per se was wrong, but the in-depth qualitative studies that have been undertaken by the monitor and by the National Audit Office suggest that there is a problem.
The Immigration Advisory Service in particular is concerned about the problems with family visit and student entry clearance appeals. It has provided data to the Library for two financial years—2002–03 and 2003–04. The overall success rate on appeal for students represented by the Immigration Advisory Service was 38 per cent. in 2002–03 and 49 per cent. in 2003–04, and for family visitors the corresponding figures were 79 per cent.—more than three quarters—in 2002–03 and 83 per cent. in 2003–04.
An analysis was made by the independent monitor, who had received those figures from the IAS, which showed that for Bangladeshi, Ghanaian and Indian appellants the success rate was more than 90 per cent. in 2002–03. We should therefore ask whether it is justifiable, when the overwhelming majority of appeals are allowed, to remove the right of appeal from broad categories, although I accept that some family appeals may still be allowed. Such a removal cannot be right. That is why the clause, as currently drafted, is unacceptable. Does the Minister recognise that the recommendations of the National Audit Office and the independent monitor have to be implemented? No doubt he will explain that the Government are implementing the training programme, which was set out in the letter that I referred to yesterday, which is intended to improve initial decisions and thus reduce the number of successful appeals. If that is the case, surely the Minister should consider introducing a ban on appeals—most of which are successful—only when the Government have solved the problems in the quality of initial decisions on entry clearance that were identified by the independent monitor and the independent audit.
Mrs. Gillan: I am following what the hon. Gentleman is reading out from the Library brief which, as usual, is excellent. Had he read on a bit further, he would find that in the brief the point is also made that differences in refusal rates in different posts may be justified by the quality of the applications. In fairness to the Minister and the officials who work on applications, it must be understood that sometimes the quality of applications is less than perfect; they may not explain what is behind individuals' applications. However, in areas where there is a high percentage of successful appeals, closer investigation may be
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appropriate to determine whether that is due to the standard of adjudication or the fact that the applications are so poor that it is difficult to draw conclusions. I am probably making the Minister's point for him, but we should be fair to those personnel who operate in sometimes difficult and adverse circumstances.
Dr. Harris: I do not think that there is any question of being unfair. I am referring to qualitative reports by the independent monitor of the quality of decisions. I made the point twice that one could not simply operate on the basis of the number of successful appeals because those figures may not reflect a wrong decision—a decision in error or a poor-quality decision. They may, as I said, reflect extra information that comes to light during the appeal that was not in the entry clearance application. I repeat that it is important—I agree with the hon. Lady—to look beyond the raw statistics at the qualitative examinations that have been undertaken of the figures. The independent monitor has done that. In paragraph 137 of her report, she says that she has concerns about the quality:
''Differences in refusal rates in different Posts may be justified by the quality of applications''—
as the hon. Lady has said—
''but there should not be drastic differences in the percentages of appeals allowed and dismissed.''
If the basis of appeals in a particular area relates to the fact that inadequate information was given, one has to look closer than the raw figures. It may simply be the habit of everyone in a particular place not to give all the information that they need to give initially and then to give it on appeal.
The independent monitor states:
''A post which had a high percentage of appeals allowed ought to be subject to investigation by UKvisas as I believe this would be an indication of poor decision-making.''
I do not know whether the Minister and the hon. Lady seek to substitute their judgment for that of the independent monitor.
Mrs. Gillan: That is what I actually said.
Dr. Harris: The hon. Lady says that that is what she said. Then it is not a question of the independent monitor or me being unfair to the staff at units. The point is that an independent person has been asked to look at the quality and she has a problem with it.
The independent monitor was set up in 1993 to submit annual reports about refusals of entry clearance in cases in which there is already no right of appeal. The current monitor, who submitted in February 2005 the report from which I have been quoting, draws attention to the, in her view, unlawful denial of appeal rights to some family visitors and students. She states:
''Extrapolating from my file samples in 2002 and 2003 I calculate that 28,000 applicants have been wrongly denied rights of appeal in these two years . . . It is gravely concerning that 12 per cent. of those denied rights of appeal are not the applicants whom Parliament intended to be denied such a right. As I mentioned above I urge Parliament to consider this when and if consideration is given to removing further rights of appeal''.
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That is a separate point from the quality of initial decision making. It is about the quality of allocation of applications into or outside the groups that are allowed to appeal under the current system. The Minister indicates in statute and in the explanatory notes that there will be some categories for which appeals are allowed, but if such a large number of people are, under the current system, not given their right of appeal when they should be, surely that has to be tackled before the Minister makes even wider the categories into which people who have a right of appeal might be wrongly placed.
The independent monitor listed the following parameters for how the right of appeal was being wrongly denied. First, family visitors were being denied rights of appeal as the entry clearance officer failed correctly to recognise that the family member being visited was on the list of qualifying family members. Secondly, family visitors were being denied rights of appeal on the basis that they were ''not related as claimed'' when that should be an issue within any appeal. Thirdly, family visitors were being denied rights of appeal on the basis that the family member in the UK was not settled. Fourthly, family visitors were being denied rights of appeal when their visit to the UK had a dual purpose. Fifthly, students were being classified as being on a course of six months' duration or less simply because a module of their course, rather than the course itself, lasted less than six months.
The independent monitor's concerns are explicit. I do not think that they are an attack on hard-pressed entry clearance officers any more than the report by the National Audit Office was. We must go beyond that sort of debate and consider the real issues. I want the Minister not only to state what measures are being put in place to improve the quality of decision making but to give an assurance that the Government will make the situation no worse for the individuals whose interests are damaged by the existing measures—that the Government will not introduce this legislation, if they get it through, until such time as it is independently confirmed that they are making progress with the training, the schemes and the resources that are being put in. There is no dispute about whether more resources should be put in; the question is whether that should happen before the situation is made worse.
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