My honourable friend the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality (Liam Byrne) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am pleased to announce the publication of the independent Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) complaints audit committee (CAC) annual report for 2005-06. Copies are available in the House and on the Immigration and Nationality Directorate website.

This is the CAC's 12th report. Its role is to monitor the effectiveness of the IND's procedures for handling complaints. The annual report highlights a number of areas where the IND needs to improve its performance, supported by a number of specific recommendations, many of which confirm findings of the IND review in July.

We very much welcome the report and its findings, which chime with July's IND review.

For the first time this year the IND's response, which includes full details of the work it is doing to improve its complaint handling procedures, has been published at the same time. Copies of this are available with the CAC's report.