We have now officially entered a very grim period in modern British history which is beginning to mirror the horrors and discrimination which the British authorities imposed on the “citizens of the United Kingdom and the Colonies” by way of the Special Quota Voucher Scheme (SQVS).
This sounds like a strong thing to say but nowadays the government is using high-handed tactics similar to its actions in the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s when it obscured everything in order to get away with its manifestly illegal behaviour.
So far the present coalition government has shown almost no respect for the courts’ rulings in relation to its retrograde immigration policies. But the losses in the courts will begin to mount and ultimately the government will collapse under the weight of judgments such as this one, this one and this one.
The latest problem lies in the UKBA’s inability in providing precise numbers in relation to the number of CoS which will be available to sponsors until April 2011 when a final cap will be introduced. The latest news on the matter provided by the UKBA which is available here provides a conflicting account of exactly how many CoS will be assignable until April 2011 when the “permanent cap” sets in. At the moment in the second substantive paragraph in the link the number of CoS is set at 10,382 in bold and in the fifth substantive paragraph the interim limit is set at 10,832. Such mistakes are typical of a dysfunctional bureaucracy which the UKBA (and the Home Office) has come to typify.
The latter figure of 10,832 is in fact correct and it is the one in the immigration minister’s latest statement. But why the UKBA is unable to get things right is slightly astonishing.
In any event the statement of changes in the immigration rules the government is using to limit the CoS has not been laid before Parliament for a 40-day period which is mandatory under section 3(2) of the 1971 Act.
Instead, the statement was laid before Parliament on 15 July 2010 and it entered into force on 19 July 2010 and therefore the statement is 36 days short of the Parliamentary procedure which the Court of Appeal affirmed in Pankina. Sedley LJ has given the home secretary the Pankina blues forever because as he rightly said that the SSHD is not above the law and any significant changes in the rules must be spelt out by her in the rules.
