Government Response - Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

This is the government's response, published 8 September 2025.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government's response to the Constitution Committee's seven recommendations defends the Bill's main provisions, including the offences, retrospective clauses and the clause 25 and 43 powers, and sets out how it will work with the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS on the appeals timeframe.

• On the new offences, the Government says they are "necessarily broadly drawn but contain appropriate safeguards", and it is "confident" they are consistent with the Refugee Convention. It cites express carve outs, including for search and rescue and journalism.
• On retrospective clauses 41 and 57, it does not propose removing retrospective effect. It says "it is entirely right that these provisions apply retrospectively" for clause 41, and that clause 57 is "justified and proportionate".
• On clause 25, the Home Office "considers that the negative procedure offers a proportionate level of parliamentary oversight". It says safeguards "cannot be decided prior to any decision on who will be granted the powers", so they are not set out in primary legislation.
• On the appeals timeframe, the provisions "will not apply immediately following Royal Assent". The Government expects an implementation period and says it "will continue to work with the MoJ and HMCTS", while expecting the clauses to affect the timeliness of cases outside their scope.

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