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    Theresa May splits UK Border Agency in bid to kill immigration row

    Politics.co.uk – Mon, Feb 20, 2012

    By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt

    Theresa May split the UK Border Agency in half today, in a bid to kill the controversy around reduced immigration checks.

    Theresa May presented the Vine report into the reduced checks to the Commons, only to be met by demands that she apologise to parliament for her conduct.

    "UKBA has been a troubled organisation since it was founded," Ms May told the Commons.

    "It has reacted to a serious of problems instead of positively managing its responsibilities.

    "It is in better hands for the future but the extent of the transformational change required is too great for one organisation."

    The home secretary confirmed UK Border Force would split into a new operational command, in a bid to create a "whole new management culture".

    Brian Moore, chief constable of Wiltshire police, has been made interim UK Border Force head.

    The Vine report is particularly damning towards UK Border Force but it contains problems for the home secretary as well.

    The report confirmed that reduced checks took place on those arriving in the UK without ministerial authorisation in the period after 2007. Reductions were non-existent in the first two years, but rose dramatically in 2011.

    UK Border Force sometimes suspended checks in unauthorised circumstances above and beyond the health and safety scenarios envisaged and then proceeded to abandon them entirely for some passengers.

    Fingerprint secure ID was suspended on a number of occasions without ministerial approval.

    In one case, when Ms May explicitly rejected suspension of ID checks, officials went ahead without her authorisation.

    One operation, which reduced checks on passengers from low-risk countries, was "potentially discriminatory and unlawful", Ms May told MPs.

    Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Ms May had given MPs an unbalanced account of the report, which did not include the passages on ministerial responsibility or the effect of reduced staff numbers on the UK Border Force.

    The "clear suggestion is lack of staff could have increased problems and yet she hasn't give that statement in her report to parliament," Ms Cooper said.

    "Time and again the home secretary has not set out the whole information in this report.

    "This has very serious implications for our border and yet the home secretary is continuing to hide, as she has hidden from the media.

    "It's time for her to stop hiding, to take responsibility," she added.

    "This mess got worse and escalated on her watch. Unless she accepts responsibility she will fail to sort it out."

    Ms Cooper said the report found ministers had failed to clear language when authorising reduced checks.

    Its instruction that queues should not get beyond "reasonable length" were open to misinterpretation, the report found.

    The report also criticised ministers for failing to monitor the scheme once it was authorised.

    Ms May later admitted that the report did criticise ministers, although she had not mentioned it in her statement to the Commons.

    The reduced checks were introduced following concerns in airports and in government at the length of the queues at immigration checks.

    The loss of the suspension system will concern staff and police, as the backlog at ports and entry points often reaches unacceptable levels under the various new procedures set up to detect illegal immigrants.

    The home secretary confirmed she would implement the reports suggestions in full, including cancelling all existing suspension measures featured in the report, introducing an operating policy on secure ID checks, establishing a minimum level of mandatory checks for all passengers and setting standards for record keeping.

     

    39 comments

    • silverfox
      silverfox  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      If the UK stopped giving housing and benefits to immigrants without contributing ,they would not come here. I know of no other country who would put up with it.
    • PUDD99
      PUDD99  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      I have an easy Policy that can stop it all in ONE go SAY NO To any more immigrants.
    • Sick-of-it
      Sick-of-it  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      NO ONE HERE IN THE UK OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD EVER WANTED ANY IMMIGRATION, IT HAS DONE NOTHING BUT DEVIDE, DAMAGE AND LEAVE UNEASY FEELINGS EVERYWHERE. IF YOUR COUNTRY IS IN A MESS THEN STAY PUT AND HELP REBUILD IT, NOT FLEE LOOKING FOR FREE HANDOUTS!!! CIVIL UNREST IS BREWING AND IT WILL HAPPEN IN OUR LIFETIME AS KEEP PUSHING AND EVENTUALLY PEOPLE PUSH BACK!!!!!
      • opinionator
        opinionator 3 months ago
        Absolutely,viva the revolution!
      • William
        William 3 months ago
        Yes it will happen. Immigration has only been beneficial to the rich.
      • Linda W
        Linda W 3 months ago
        The Greeks are coming !!!!!!
    • fedup
      fedup  •  3 months ago
      To late countries already full and the second they burn their passports they cannot be deported until we get visas until that happens they are released and go on the run. Thanks to all the corupt and softy softly approach Europe are happy for us to keep having waves of illegals crossing their borders to the UK because we are a soft touch. Enough is enough when will they listen to the legal UK population whos families have fought to keep the country free of foriegn enemy. No doubt yahoo will delete this because its what alot of the population think but are to afraid to say anything for being called racist. Its not a crime to be patriotic and want a better UK.
      • Claire
        Claire 3 months ago
        don't forget so many of these people also fought as machineries for the UK.
      • fedup
        fedup 3 months ago
        Claire if they fought for this country they are welcome but i am sick of droves of immigrants who provide nothing and expect everything pouring into the country they will bankrupt the benefits system for those who have genuinely paid in and deserve the help rather than those who sneak in get settled marry a UK resident then get everything for free it stinks and every tax payer in this country knows it. As a tax payer and seeing huge chunks of my wages eaten away by the amount of deductions to keep the bone idle and people who expext everything for nothing i am fed up and disgusted that we continuely allow it to carry on. .
      • Des
        Des 3 months ago
        Well said
    • george
      george  •  Middlesbrough, England  •  3 months ago
      i find that the last 15Years of Government has caused chaos in this country with the open door policy to immigration. the NHS cannot cope with the mass immigration, the illegalls and crime that is happening in the UK is out of control. the situation is creating financial havock and still the flood of immigrants goes on.the TORIES stated that it was only going to admit immigrants who were going to improve the country, then why are millions of never ending people mainly dependant on the state being addmitted by the loony border force to this tiny island which will reach a population of 70million by 2020. the welfare state is on it's knees with cuts to the welfare ,and still this madness immigration continues...
    • Carlton Sounds.
      Carlton Sounds.  •  Warwick, England  •  3 months ago
      Some people in some Nations don't like each other in Britain, etc. And Repatriation might be a solution to some of the problems in Britain, etc.
    • albert
      albert  •  3 months ago
      Only a complete half wit would lat this happen and instruct the border agency to work like this, with the up and coming Olympics borders should have been tighter to eliminate any terrorist attempt at such a globally recognised event and to ensure safety for all nationalities. The UK should tell the Europrats to butt out as we would refuse entry and deport as necessary in order of national and international safety.
    • Ian R
      Ian R  •  Brighton, England  •  3 months ago
      I would stand in an airport queu all day if it stopped just one Immegrant/benefit seeker getting in, i think you will find what few "britishers" left would !!
    • Gargletrope
      Gargletrope  •  3 months ago
      Is there ANYTHING that Labour set up that actually works.....??
      -
      Apart from their mass immigration Policy, of course.
      • PAUL
        PAUL 3 months ago
        Labour did not tell theresa may what to say or do. It was a problem which appeared only after she took over. It is getting really boring listening to inept corrupt tory liars blaming Labour every time they #$%$ up. Also immigration rates went down under Labour. They have gone through the roof now the tories are in. Get your facts right. Stop reading the lying british media.
      • bulldog
        bulldog 3 months ago
        When T Blair was in, I seem to remember a lot of so called asylum seekers falling of the backs of lorries, and nothing was done about it. Most of whom are still in this country, no doubt comfortably ensconced in council houses.
    • Nos Feratu
      Nos Feratu  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Yes, it could've all been avoided, except this country is stupid. Well, what do you expect with the PC brigade in the media being all in their ivory towers and letting the average person live with the immigrants/ethnic groups.
    • JLloyd
      JLloyd  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Another initiative. Another layer. Keep it simple and fix the old border system properly.
      If it needs more money for extra staff and resources then it will be money well spent.
      • Gargletrope
        Gargletrope 3 months ago
        The Report indicates that it was/is "management culture and ability to communicate" that has been the main factor.
        -
        You can throw any amount of money at an organisation (look at the NHS). But without effective management and good communication, it will flounder.
    • Barrack Room Lawyer
      Barrack Room Lawyer  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Only a f*****g Tory could come up with a plan to totally disrupt an already disfunctional Border Agency just before the London Olympics. A headless chicken would have more serenity than this idiot of a woman who has been promoted far beyond her capabilities, and intelligence.
    • Steve
      Steve  •  Irvine, Scotland  •  3 months ago
      The women should be sacked not moved to the back benches she has put lives at risk in this country by total ineptitude
    • Jimbob
      Jimbob  •  Mansfield, England  •  2 months ago
      We could do with importing 10,0000 Australian border police to show them how it should be done.
    • Waino
      Waino  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      The home secretary is responsible for this mess
      • R
        R 3 months ago
        all the home secretarys, they are all to blame
    • STUART
      STUART  •  Darlington, England  •  3 months ago
      hang on a minute was it not teresa may who implemented the changes to the uk border force which caused all these problems in the first place she should have been sacked instead she is still in the job this is just another example of the torys looking after there own
    • R
      R  •  3 months ago
      what a total lot of rot. because we are busy and very crowded we must let people thru without checks, no way. thats how all the people we do not want here get in.
      no non uk nationals should be let in without all the checks and at the moment parts of the arab world and pakistan are very suspect even if persons coming from these areas hold uk
      pasports.
    • David
      David  •  Sheffield, England  •  3 months ago
      We need to reduce immigration. Problem solved.
    • Carl
      Carl  •  Maidenhead, England  •  3 months ago
      traitors should be shoot
    • Lightf00t
      Lightf00t  •  Milton Keynes, England  •  3 months ago
      Why is it that whenever the Tories try to change anything, Labour oppose anything and everything? I thought conservatives were meant to be reactionary? Seems to me that LAbour are the ones against progress.
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