Debate contribution: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 23 June 2025.

MLA

Mrs Naomi Long

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

23 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5046031

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I wish to move on to the matter of Committee engagement, which was raised by the Chair of the Committee. I thank the Chair and Committee members for their work on the LCM. The LCM is limited in nature, and I will address that. The nature and overall topic of the Bill made initial engagement quite complex because the vast majority of the measures in it are reserved or excepted. I know that Members want to have a debate about immigration, and they are free to do so. The debate on this LCM is not, however, the forum in which to do that, because the LCM is on a reserved matter — immigration — and the only measures for which I need legislative consent are the devolved measures. The boundaries between reserved and excepted matters and devolved matters are clearly established, and I am not responsible for reserved and excepted matters. Members continue to make pointless charges that I should do something about immigration enforcement when I do not have the vires to do so. Border Force is responsible for the enforcement of border law in Northern Ireland, under the direct charge of the Home Office.

Given that Members are so concerned about illegal immigration, you would expect them to do their homework and to know that.

Mr Speaker, I will not give way to the Member. The Member has plenty to say —

The Member has had plenty to say while he has been sitting down, and I will certainly not give way to him while he continues to shout.

The Home Office originally wrote the First Minister and deputy First Minister. My Department, because of its limited role in the matter, was not engaged by the Home Office. However, given that no measures falling within the Bill require the consent of the Executive Office, I took the decision to move forward with an LCM for those issues, as I set out in my introductory remarks, that fall within the remit of Justice, recognising that it has only a limited vires in respect of immigration. A further complicating factor was that there was a measure in the Bill that required the consent of the Department for the Economy. My Department agreed that it could use our LCM to progress that. The Committee received a briefing on 23 April to alert it to the measures in the Bill. A further paper was provided on 22 May, alongside the legislative consent motion and memorandum seeking consent. Departmental officials provided oral evidence to the Committee on 29 May. I note that the Committee's report on the Bill was published on 5 June. I thank the Committee for its scrutiny of the Bill and its subsequent report, but I understand its frustration, because LCMs always happen at pace and often engage complex and sensitive issues. I was pleased to note that no substantive concerns were raised and that the Committee was content to support my decision to seek Assembly endorsement of those matters that require legislative consent, as opposed to those that are legislated for, rightly, by Westminster. Why was the memorandum laid the day before the full legislative consent motion? As Members will understand, and as officials have already explained and apologised for to the Committee, that was due to an administrative error. The memorandum should have been laid following the correspondence with the Executive and the Justice Committee on 23 April. I apologise if that frustrated the Committee's work in any way. The Home Office has overall responsibility for the measures in the wider Bill and for immigration in Northern Ireland, just as it does for immigration in every other part of the UK. The Executive Office has an interest in some measures in the Bill, but none of those requires legislative consent; they are all under the vires of the Home Office as they are excepted or reserved matters. The three measures that I have brought forward fall within the legislative competency of my Department, and the fourth rests with the Department for the Economy.

The Home Office wrote to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister. I have therefore engaged with the Home Office in relation only to the measures in the Bill that are within the remit of my Department, rather than on the wider Bill. I note that the Member raised the issue of what the PSNI is doing. This morning, I set out in detail the work of the joint agency task force in disrupting organised crime gangs, which include those who engage in people smuggling. The Policing Board has been working with the PSNI on, in particular, Albanian people smugglers who advertise online. The Deputy Chair of the Committee asked what engagement we need with the Infrastructure Minister. The clause about sharing trailer registration information is not cross-cutting. It establishes a framework to allow the Secretary of State for Transport, through the GB Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, to share trailer and registration information with specific government bodies, including the police. The Driver and Vehicle Agency in Northern Ireland does not register trailers, including Northern Ireland trailers. The DVLA carries out that function for Northern Ireland trailers that require registration, so there is no cross-cutting element to that part of the legislation. A wider point has been made today that I should do x, y or z in relation to immigration. Where immigration crime is part of the organised crime disruption process and, for example, things like unexplained wealth orders or other Criminal Finances Act 2017 measures can be deployed, of course they will be used to prevent those who exploit human misery and exploit the vulnerable from being able to profit from that. That falls within the remit of the Department of Justice. Specific immigration laws, which are reserved and excepted matters, do not. They are dealt with at UK level. They are not devolved in Scotland; they are not devolved in Wales; and they are not devolved in Northern Ireland. I cannot do the Home Secretary's job for her any more than she can delve into matters that are devolved to the Assembly. That is why I stand here today, proposing a legislative consent motion to seek the permission of the House for the Home Secretary to take action on the issues for which I have responsibility. I do not have responsibility for the remainder of the Bill. These are the elements for which I have responsibility, and that is why I propose the motion. I hope that it is clear to Members that the Bill will not only strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies and the courts to tackle serious and organised crime but ensure that we do not fall behind the rest of the UK in our response to those issues. We, as an Assembly, need to take these matters seriously, and it is not helpful, frankly, to level wider narratives about inactivity on the part of the PSNI or, indeed, the DOJ. That undermines public confidence and is unjust in the context of the matter not being devolved and our having no vires to act. Where we do, we have acted, and today provides a strong example of that.

1,201 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:50 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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