UKBA to be split in two
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) is to be split in to two separate bodies as a result of last year's high profile border control lapses and the resignation of the UK Border Chief, Brodie Clark.The plan is to split the UKBA - the part which handles immigration case files, visa applications, citizenship etc - and the UK Border Force, which will handle the policing of borders and immigration matters. The new UK Border Force will be headed by a Chief Constable.
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, made the announcement to Parliament following the publication of An investigation into border security checks, the official report into the the border control lapses at UK ports and airports uncovered last summer. She said it needed a new management culture and to become a “disciplined law enforcement organisation,” led by a director general reporting directly to ministers. Brian Moore, chief constable of Wiltshire, is to be its interim head.
However, the shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, disagreed, saying ‘The report shows that instructions from the home secretary’s office were unclear, whilst the immigration minister authorised relaxed checks in January 2011 without asking the home secretary which were then implemented in by the UKBA. The Home Secretary is trying to claim that the problems at the UKBA have nothing to do with her, the immigration minister or her so called pilots. Yet the report shows the opposite.”
Brodie Clark also commented that, ‘The home secretary’s statement gives only a partial picture of the report’s contents and does not acknowledge its full findings, including the criticisms of ministers.’
The Vine Report
The report found that Immigration Minister, Damian Green, gave the go-ahead for the suspension of the key checks on overseas passengers with biometric visas from outside the European Union before last year’s Easter holiday. However, the report also found that the UKBA, under Mr Clark, had continued to suspend these checks after the Home Secretary had specifically excluded them from being suspended.
The report shows that various other checks were relaxed without ministerial authorisation than had previously been made public, including over half a million EEA migrants who travelled to the UK on Eurostar services from Disneyland and other French resorts.
The report also reveals that a pilot scheme for a risk-based approach to passport checks which had been authorised by ministers has not been the success that was claimed by David Cameron in the Commons. Instead, the report says it is not possible to quantify whether it has been a success or a failure.
Ultimately, the report makes it clear that it was a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities and a lack of clarity about language by ministers and senior officials that led to widespread confusion among frontline staff.
The report’s recommendations
The full list of recommendations made in the report is as follows. As the situation develops it will be interesting to see how the Home Secretary implements any changes based on this:
- The extent of the UK Border Agency’s operational autonomy from the Home Office needs to be explicit, with a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities.
- A new framework of border security checks, authorised by Ministers, should be produced and implemented urgently. This needs to take account of the different operational environments at ports, the benefits to border security of conducting the checks and the implications for border security of any reduction in checks.
- Ministers should decide the minimum standard of border security checks to be applied at UK ports before allowing entry to the UK.
- Ministerial decisions, policy proposals and operational instructions must be communicated effectively with specific and careful use of language.
- The level of authorisation required for any suspension of or reduction in border security checks must be explicitly set out and authorised by Ministers.
- Suspension of border security checks should only take place when absolutely necessary. Records showing the frequency of these, the reasons for them and the level of authorisation obtained should be reported to Ministers and senior managers on a quarterly or more frequent basis.
- To ensure suspension of border security checks is kept to an absolute minimum, a clear understanding of what constitutes health and safety grounds for suspension should be agreed.
- An operating policy for fingerprint verification of all visa nationals (Secure ID) needs to be produced as a matter of urgency. It must take into account its importance relative to other checks contained within any new framework of border security checks.
- Record-keeping at ports should be overhauled ensuring that staff know what to record, and why, whilst keeping bureaucracy to a minimum. Management should ask for and review records of border security checks to inform development of policy.
- A rigorous management assurance process needs to be put in place so that Ministers and the UK Border Agency can be assured that policy is being translated into practice on the ground.
- The UK Border Agency must ensure that any local initiative regarding suspension of border security checks does not contradict any new framework of border security checks and is lawful and properly authorised.
- Service standards for passenger queuing times and staffing levels at ports should be reviewed to ensure they are compatible with any new framework of border security checks.
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