LAST week I attended the closing ceremony of the parliamentary session at which Parliament was prorogued until June 4.

One striking feature of this ancient ritual is the naming of the acts of Parliament which have just received royal assent, followed by the declaration in Norman French “La Reyne le veult” (meaning “The Queen wishes it”).

As far as I am concerned, the “flagship” bill which was passed this session and came into force last week at that ceremony, is the Immigration Act 2014.

This new law builds on the reforms of the last three years in which we imposed an annual limit on non-EU immigration, reformed the points system to ensure that only those with necessary skills are admitted from outside the EU, tightened up the family and student visa regimes, and imposed new language tests. Collectively these measures have brought about the sharpest fall in net migration since statistics were first collected. The new measure passed last week will have a major impact on the Home Office’s work to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.

The Immigration Act 2014 will: l reduce the number of immigration decisions that can be taken to an appeal court from 17 to only 4, ending the expensive nonsense whereby applicants – with no right to be here – string out the legal processes, indefinitely putting off their deportation.

l ensure the courts have regard to Parliament’s view of what the public interest requires, when considering Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in immigration cases, ending the outrageous abuse of the “right to a family life” which has enabled people illegally here to avoid deportation.

l reform the deportation process, replacing the current multiple decision points with a single decision notice to ensure that individuals are in no doubt as to their immigration status and their liability to be removed.

l end the scandal of imprisoning children for immigration purposes, by reforming the family deportation process.

l restrict the ability of immigration detainees to apply repeatedly for bail unless there really has been a material change in their circumstances.

l require private landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants, in order to prevent those with no right to live in the UK from accessing private rented housing.

l Introduce a new requirement for temporary migrants with a time-limited immigration status, to make a financial contribution to our National Health Service.

l require banks to check against a database of known immigration offenders before opening bank accounts.

l make it easier for the Home Office to recover unpaid civil penalties.

l introduce new powers to check applicants’ immigration status before issuing driving licences and to revoke licences where immigrants are found to have overstayed in the UK.

l clamp down on people who try to gain an immigration advantage by entering into a sham marriage or civil partnership; l allow the Home Secretary to revoke British citizenship that has been previously granted in cases where immigrants have conducted themselves in a way which is seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK.

These changes continue the programme of reforms to build an immigration system which is fair and which works in our national interest. It will stop migrants using public services to which they are not entitled and it will make it easier to remove people who should not be here.

Immigration from outside the EU is now at its lowest level for 16 years. We need to keep building on that achievement until it is no longer a constant source of public disquiet.