Visa system – 'damaging to culture'

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Lord Clement-Jones writes for ePolitix.com ahead of his question on the impact of the points-based visa system on visiting artists and performers.

Last year the Manifesto Club published a report, Cancelled by Order of the Home Office, which set out a catalogue of the damage done to Britain's reputation as a centre for international arts as a result of the Home Office's points-based visa system for non-EU applicants which was introduced in November 2008.

The new system affects international artists and academics who visit the UK for a variety of cultural and academic activities.

Subsequently this year a petition supported by leading artists and academics such as sculptor Antony Gormley and Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate, was presented to No10 Downing Street.

This was then followed up after the general election by the leading signatories in a letter to the Times, in which they said of the new system:

"It is ruining Britain's reputation as a cultural hub, and also turning cultural institutions and universities, against their will, into surveillance arms of the UK Border Agency, itself largely unaccountable."

The new points-based system requires artists and academics to demonstrate that they have £800 in savings, and requires monitoring by 'sponsors' of the artists and academics involved, which means that they are responsible for monitoring to ensure that the artists and academics do not abscond during their visit.

Biometric data – electronic finger scans – are required, yet biometric equipment may not be available in particular countries.

Despite the campaign, the catalogue of problems for visiting artists and academics has continued and the regulations have continued to lead to a stream of cancelled talks and art events by artists and academics from anywhere outside Europe.

As recently as June, Russian prima ballerina Polina Semionova, as the Guardian reported, was unable to appear at the Royal Albert Hall as the guest lead in 12 performances of Swan Lake as a result of visa complications.

In May Daara J, the successful hip hop band from Senegal, who have headlined at Womad and won a BBC World Music Award, were unable to travel from Paris to London, because they had been refused entry to the UK by the UK Border Agency. They had visas to enter Europe, but not to cross the Channel.

Palestinian poet Basem Nabres has been refused a visa for entry into the UK, and so did not appear at this month's Ledbury Poetry Festival.

No wonder in May, opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa criticised visa restrictions when she collected a Classical Brit award.

To his credit, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, in his new culture strategy document Cultural Metropolis, launched last month, is also calling for an overhaul, believing that the new system is damaging London's reputation as a world centre for culture.

As the petitioners said in their letter to the Times:

"The vibrancy of British cultural life rests on the openness and independence of its institutions, and on maintaining rich and extensive collaboration with thinkers, artists and the students who will make the future."

Last year I raised the matter in the Lords with the previous government, but was told that there wasn't a problem. I hope the new coalition government – of which my own party is a part – takes a less complacent approach, recognises that there is a major issue, and agrees to undertake a full review so that we can ensure that the points-based system no longer damages UK arts and cultural exchange.

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