One of the key bills to be announced in today’s Queen’s Speech is an immigration bill. This serves two key purposes: the first is to bring into legislation all those additional restrictions on access to public services for migrants that was briefed out following the Eastleigh by-election. The second is to answer Tory backbench concerns about deportation of foreign criminals.
When it comes to restrictions for migrants – and these measures will, ministers hope, help calm nerves about the end of transitional controls on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals – temporary migrants will need to make a contribution before they can access the NHS, landlords will be required to check the immigration status of a tenant, and the government will crack down on businesses using illegal labour with bigger fines. There are other plans which don’t require primary legislation such as updated rules for social housing.
The deportation element of the Immigration Bill is the answer to that backbench push in the Crime and Courts Bill for limits on the ability of foreign criminals to resist deportation.
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