PLP has submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill, which is currently being considered by the Committee.

PLP takes no position on the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Our work around Brexit is intended to ensure that Parliament is appropriately sovereign, the executive held to account and the interests of disadvantaged groups properly and effectively represented. We hope to ensure procedural fairness to those likely to be most affected by the Brexit process.

As part of its Brexit work, PLP has two major projects underway. The SIFT Project (Statutory Instruments: Filtering and Tracking) aims to scrutinise the statutory instruments (‘SIs’) made in the wake of Brexit to ensure that they conform to public law principles and do not undermine fundamental rights. Additionally, PLP’s Brexit, Immigration and Administrative Justice Project looks at the impact of changes in immigration law and policy on administrative justice. This project focuses on administrative justice issues arising from the EU Settlement Scheme.

PLP’s written evidence to the Committee sets out two of PLP’s concerns with the Immigration Bill, drawing on the work of these research projects:

  1. There are unjustifiably broad delegated powers which appear to empower Ministers to rewrite our immigration and social security coordination systems with minimal Parliamentary oversight; and
  2. It does not provide for an appeal right for applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme.

You can read PLP’s evidence here. It is also published on the Committee’s website.