To ask Her Majesty's Government with respect to Clause 46 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill (a) what steps they are taking to address the concerns of the Government of the Isle of Man; (b) whether it is their view that British citizens who are Manx should be subject to the same controls as citizens of the Republic of Ireland; and (c) whether the Isle of Man was included in the public consultation that took place on the Common Travel Area; and, if not, for what reason. [HL2044]

We have made it clear that there will be no routine immigration controls on passengers travelling between the Crown dependencies and the United Kingdom, nor will we require passengers to carry a passport or national identity card on these routes. Instead we will respond flexibly to threats, increasing intelligence-led controls in response to the level of threats. Beyond this limited activity, we do not propose any significant change in practice on these routes. The free movement for the vast majority of those who use these routes will not alter.

This differs from our intentions for air and sea routes between the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom, where we propose to adopt more routine intelligence-led immigration controls and where passengers travelling on these routes will be required to carry a passport or national identity card.

Immigration controls on routes between the Crown dependencies and the UK (including the routes between the Isle of Man and the UK) were not included in the 24 July consultation paper or the accompanying partial impact assessment and there has been no specific public consultation on this regarding the Crown dependencies because we do not intend any significant change of practice on these routes.

There are regular working-level contacts with the insular immigration services and they have been involved throughout the policy development process. The draft legislation was passed to the Crown dependencies more formally, through the Ministry of Justice, in December 2008.

Further discussions with the Crown dependencies have resulted in an agreement with the Isle of Man to work towards a Memorandum of Understanding on the issue of Common Travel Area reform which will clearly set out the policy intentions of the United Kingdom in respect of this route and that the status of British citizens who are Manx will not be compromised.

We will continue to work closely with the Government of the Isle of Man as we progress with our reform of the Common Travel Area.