Hansard

I thank Christian Allard for bringing the matter to the chamber. The UK Government’s Immigration Bill is problematic on many levels. The right to rent scheme requires landlords to check immigration status documents. In addition, the bill gives landlords powers to evict a tenant whose right to rent has expired without the need for a court order. If that was extended to Scotland, that would undermine Scottish tenancy laws.

The bill’s implications for Scotland are unclear and the Scottish Government needs to get clarity. Landlords are not immigration officers. Under the bill, the Conservative Government wants to turn landlords and letting agents into administrators. That role should be carried out by the Home Office but, because of a massive reduction in staff numbers, the UK Government wants to shift the responsibility to someone else.

Landlords could face a prison sentence if they get this wrong, but they are not experts in immigration and should not be expected to have such responsibilities and be answerable to the Government. Even if the Government passes the buck on checking people’s immigration documents, it will still need staff to enforce the new laws. Without enforcement, passing laws is pretty pointless. Bad legislation and poor enforcement can do more harm than good.

I have for a long time been asking for a sensible discussion about immigration. A lot of noise has been made about the fresh talent initiative and post-study work visas, with calls for the visas to be reintroduced to support Scotland’s universities in attracting students from overseas. As I have said in the chamber before, the immigration system is not meant to help only one sector of the economy or one part of the country. We need an immigration system that helps us to manage skills shortages.

I am in favour of a points-based system—similar to that in Canada—in which separate regions can set their own priorities. Although we are part of the UK and its Government has the right to legislate for the country as a whole, powers have been given to this Parliament and the Scottish Government. The UK Government needs to respect that.

The UK Government needs to understand that there are local needs, which relate to the post-study work visas that I mentioned. We desperately need support and help in that area, but the British Government has consistently denied us that opportunity. Perhaps that is because it feels that action must be taken on a UK-wide basis. Action needs to be taken, and I believe that we have support across the chamber for that type of thinking.

The bill needs to be defeated in the UK Parliament but, more important, we need to see how it would impact on Scottish legislation. I am sure that the Scottish legal system will advise the Scottish Government on how best to tackle the issue.

No law is a good law if it hurts the country’s economy and infringes people’s rights. We cannot expect untrained people to do a professional’s job. We cannot expect households, managers, agents, carry-out owners and restaurateurs to do immigration officers’ jobs. That is extremely unreasonable and it is hurting a lot of people throughout the country.