UK Border Agency

Lord Henley Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Henley)]

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made in another place by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary.

“With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement on the United Kingdom Border Force, an operational division of the United Kingdom Border Agency.

The border force is responsible for ensuring that only legitimate travellers and goods are allowed to enter and leave the United Kingdom, while reducing threats, including illegal immigration, drug smuggling and terrorism. Border force activities include verifying the immigration status of passengers arriving and departing the UK; checking baggage, vehicles and cargo for illicit goods; and searching for illegal immigrants.

Border force officers confirm the identity of passengers arriving at the United Kingdom border, check passengers against a watch-list known as the warning index and undertake a visual inspection of passengers’ passports. Where a biometric passport is held, the biometric chip, which contains a second photograph, is opened and verified. Non-EU passengers undergo additional checks. Officers establish whether a visa is required and whether a visa is held; if the passenger has a biometric visa, then a fingerprint database check can be made; and officers decide whether the passenger should be granted entry to the United Kingdom.

In the past, under the previous Government, some of these checks were lifted at times of pressure on the border. In the summer of 2008, warning index checks were suspended on EEA nationals—children and adults—on Eurostar services. At Calais, warning index checks were suspended on European economic area and UK car passengers—again, adults as well as children were not run against the index. Since 2008, at various ports and airports, this happened on more than 100 occasions.

Officials have told me that once, in 2004, local managers at Heathrow terminal 3 decided to open controls and no checks were made. To prevent this happening again, and to allow resources to be focused on the highest-risk passengers and journeys, in July I agreed that the United Kingdom Border Agency could pilot a scheme that would allow border force officials to target intelligence-led checks on higher-risk categories of travellers.

Initial options had been put to the then Security Minister and the Immigration Minister in January, and this resulted in proposals for a risk-based strategy coming to me in April. After further work, I agreed an amended and limited pilot scheme in July. That meant that, under limited circumstances, EEA national children, travelling with their parents or as part of a school group, would be checked against the warning index, designed to detect terrorists and serious criminals, when assessed by a border force official to be a credible risk.

The pilot also allowed, under limited circumstances, border force officials the discretion to judge when to open the biometric chip, which contains a second photograph and no further information, on the passports of EEA nationals. Those circumstances were that the measures would always be subject to a risk-based assessment, that they should not be routine, and that the volume of passengers would be such that border security would be stronger with more risk-based checks and fewer mandatory checks than with more mandatory checks on low-risk passengers and fewer risk-based checks on high-risk passengers. The advice of security officials was sought and they confirmed that they were content with the measures.

I want everyone to understand what was supposed to happen under the terms of the pilot. In usual circumstances, all checks would be carried out on all passengers. Under the risk-based controls, everybody’s passports would be checked; visa nationals’ fingerprints would be checked; all non-EEA nationals’ biometric chips would be checked; all adults would be run past the warning index; all non-EEA nationals would be run past the warning index; and border officials would be free to use their professional judgment to check the biometric chip of EEA passengers and free to use their professional judgment to check EEA children travelling with parents or a school group against the warning index.

The pilot was extended on 19 September and was due to end last Friday. The results are not yet fully evaluated but UKBA’s statistics show that, compared to the same period last year, the number of illegal immigrants detected increased by nearly 10 per cent.

Last week, John Vine, the independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, raised concerns with Rob Whiteman, the chief executive of UKBA, that security checks were not being implemented properly. On Wednesday, the head of the UK Border Force, Brodie Clark, confirmed to Mr Whiteman that border controls had been relaxed without ministerial approval. First, biometric checks on EEA nationals and warning index checks on EEA national children were abandoned on a regular basis, without ministerial approval. Secondly, adults were not checked against the warning index at Calais, without ministerial approval. Thirdly, the verification of the fingerprints of non-EEA nationals from countries that require a visa was stopped, without ministerial approval.

I did not give my consent or authorisation for any of these decisions. Indeed, I told officials explicitly that the pilot was to go no further than we had agreed. As a result of these unauthorised actions, we will never know how many people entered the country who should have been prevented from doing so after being flagged by the warning index.

Following Mr Clark’s conversation with Mr Whiteman, the latter carried out further investigations and, on Thursday morning, he suspended Mr Clark from duty with immediate effect. The Home Office Permanent Secretary, the Immigration Minister and I were notified of his decision that morning. The pilot scheme, which had been due to end the next day, was suspended immediately. And on Friday two other border force officials, Graeme Kyle, director of operations at Heathrow, and Carole Upshall, director of Border Force South and European Operations, were also suspended from duty on a precautionary basis.

There is nothing more important than the security of our border and, because of the seriousness of these allegations, I have ordered a number of investigations. Dave Wood, head of the UKBA Enforcement and Crime Group and a former Metropolitan police officer, will carry out an investigation into exactly how, when and where the suspension of checks might have taken place. Mike Anderson, director-general of immigration, is looking at the actions of the wider team working for Brodie Clark and John Vine will conduct a thorough review to find out exactly what happened across UKBA in terms of the checks, how the chain of command in the border force operates and whether the system needs to be changed in future. For the sake of clarity, I am very happy for Mr Vine to look at what decisions were made and when by Ministers. That investigation will begin immediately and will report by January. I will place the terms of reference for these inquiries in the House of Commons Library.

Border security is fundamental to our national security and to our policy of reducing and controlling immigration. The pilots run by the UK Border Force this summer were designed to improve border security by focusing resources at passengers and journeys that intelligence led officers to believe posed the greatest risk. The vast majority of those officers are hard-working, dedicated public servants. Just like all of us, they want to see tough immigration controls and strong enforcement, but they have been let down by senior officials at the head of the organisation who put at risk the security of our border. Our task now is to make sure that those responsible are punished and to make sure that border force officials can never take such risks with border security again. That is what I am determined to do. I commend this Statement to the House”.

My Lords, that concludes the Statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, at least I can welcome the fact that the noble Lord welcomed the fact that we are making a Statement. He alleges that the Government are failing in their duty. I think that is a bit rich from the party opposite when one considers some of the failures that I outlined in the Statement made by the Home Secretary, which were failures of the party opposite when in government. We accept that there have been failings here, which is why my right honourable friend the Home Secretary set up those two internal inquiries and, as she quite rightly emphasised, the third and most important external inquiry that will be conducted by John Vine.

As I made clear in the Statement, the terms of reference for both inquiries will be set out and placed in the Library, and I will make sure that the noble Lord gets copies. The draft terms of reference are still being discussed with John Vine, but they will cover a number of aspects, particularly investigating and reporting the level of checks operated at ports between 1 January and 4 November—Friday of last week—and fully reporting any potential adverse outcomes to border security created by any unauthorised relaxation. The noble Lord will be well aware that at this stage I cannot say whether anyone posing a threat snuck through on those occasions. That is what we hope John Vine will discover as part of his inquiry.

As I made clear in the Statement, initial results from the pilots that we discussed were fairly good. The problem was that although the pilots were authorised by the Home Secretary, quite rightly, in June of last year after extensive consultation—I could take the noble Lord at considerable length through the whole decision-making process, but that will come out in the inquiry—what seems to have happened is that certain officials went beyond what was agreed. My right honourable friend made it quite clear that they were not go to beyond what was agreed, which is why we are asking John Vine and others to look into this.

Again, I stress that my right honourable friend gave the authorisation for those pilots. We will publish the decision-making process as it is unearthed by John Vine as part of his inquiry. Again, my right honourable friend made that clear in her Statement. I shall quote her words to remind the noble Lord. She stated:

“I am very happy for Mr Vine to look at what decisions were made and when by Ministers”.

I feel that that makes it as clear as can be to the noble Lord that we are not trying to cover up anything whatever. Nor are we asking officials, as he put it, to carry the can for ministerial decisions.

My right honourable friend made a decision about pilots, as I said. It is alleged that certain officials exceeded their authority. That is what we want to have examined and will have examined because the security of our borders is fundamental. I look forward to passing on copies of those inquiries to the noble Lord. As I said, John Vine hopes to report by January. We hope to have the initial report by Dave Wood in a somewhat shorter time. However, as the noble Lord said, the independent investigation by John Vine is far more important.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I remind the House of the benefits of short questions to the Minister in order that as many noble Lords as possible have the opportunity to ask a question.

[Baroness Hamwee]

My Lords, perhaps the Minister will share with the House the extent of the pilot. Is there a link between that and the suggestions that we heard today in the media that staff were deployed in the wrong places? To give us some context, does he have information about the number of number of staff in the border agency workforce, the number who have already left and how many of them were on the front line? Finally, I wonder whether he might consider that the last two paragraphs of the Statement, which refer to “those responsible” being “punished” because they “put at risk … security”, may be a little premature in view of the investigations that are still to take place.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I again make it clear that these are only allegations at this stage. The individuals have only been suspended—two of them only on a precautionary basis. We will have to wait for the results of the independent inquiry. As to staff levels, I do not accept there has been a misdirection of staff in these matters. It is very important we use staff in the best manner possible. We all know that we have to reduce the size of the United Kingdom Border Agency. Over the spending review period it will have to lose some 5,000 or so posts. That is the nature of things when we have to deal with the cuts that we are faced with—and we know why we are faced with them.

We will make sure, as far as possible, that the staff are used in the best possible way. That was one reason behind a pilot of this sort. The initial report from the pilot seemed to indicate that it was doing rather well in terms of the increased numbers of people whom it was catching. Obviously we will have to wait for the result of John Vine’s inquiry.

[Lord Pannick]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that border controls were relaxed without ministerial authority because of the unacceptably long queues at ports of entry? If it is the case, as the Statement asserts, that,

“there is nothing more important than the security of our border”,

surely it should be the highest priority of this Government to ensure that the border agency employs sufficient staff to ensure that full checks can be carried out at all ports of entry without the unacceptable delays that cause the need for such measures to be adopted.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, the noble Lord would not want me to speculate on why certain individuals are alleged to have relaxed the rules beyond what the Home Secretary authorised in the pilot. That is the point of the investigation being mounted by John Vine. We look forward to that investigation in due course. I do not accept his second point that we have necessarily to maintain United Kingdom Border Agency staff numbers at the precise level that they have been for some time. The noble Lord will know that the numbers went up quite considerably when the Border Agency was created a few years back with the merger of a number of different agencies. We now have to reduce it in size but we will make sure that staff are deployed in precisely the right manner. That matter, too, will be covered by the investigation.

[Lord Lawson of Blaby]

Is my noble friend aware that part of the problem of delays, which has been spoken about, is that the biometric machines installed at great expense at our airports, partly in order to speed up the process, in fact take a great deal longer? I speak as a regular weekly commuter and from experience. The technology is so defective that they take much longer than the old manual system. Is he further aware that when I flew into Gatwick last night the biometric machines there were not operating at all? When I asked the border official why they were not working, he said that he did not have a clue.

[Lord Henley]

I take note of what my noble friend has to say. We inherited these machines and will try to make sure they operate as well as we can. Whether it would be right at this stage to spend very large amounts of taxpayers’ money on installing new machines is another matter. Obviously, as my noble friend says, we want to reduce delays, because delays cause major annoyance to a great number of individuals and cause damage to business. We will do what we can. At the same time we need to maintain border security, which is one of the reasons why we want to make sure that biometric details on passports are properly read.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

I am not sure whether I heard the Minister correctly. Did he say that there was a cut of 5,000 in the staff required, but no discussion about the effect of those cuts? It is a bit rich now to come to the House and say, “We’re going to try to find out the optimum number”. Surely that is a dereliction of duty.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, of course there has always been discussion about how many people are needed to maintain the appropriate level of protection at our borders. However, very difficult decisions have to be made in this, as they do regarding the police and other matters. Obviously, it might be a matter on which John Vine would also want to comment in his report. That is a matter for him: he is independent. The important thing is that Ministers made appropriate decisions at the time of the spending review about what was appropriate, which, in terms of making decisions, we have had to do across the whole of government.

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

My Lords, while not wishing in any way to endorse the cuts in UK Border Force staff which have led to delays of up to three hours in clearance at Heathrow, I wonder whether this is not one of the few times when instead of Ministers being driven into resignation due to the negligence of civil servants, as happened with Charles Clarke, a civil servant is being required to take the rap. It is a precedent that I fully support.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, on the delays, the border agency is largely meeting the targets imposed on it. The noble Lord will no doubt have examples of some pretty severe delays, but in the main, at something like 95 per cent of all locations, the agency is processing individuals with the appropriate speed. As for the noble Lord’s final remarks, all we are saying is that it seems that this official, or these officials, went beyond what Ministers authorised. That is why this process is taking place.

[Lord Marlesford]

Does my noble friend agree that there have been repeated occasions when the incompetence of the Home Office immigration department has been denounced, going back to a time when the noble Lord, Lord Reid—who in my view was a very effective Home Secretary—declared the department not fit for purpose? On that occasion the head of the department was actually promoted to be Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence. Is my noble friend aware that not only are we deeply disturbed by the apparent incompetence being revealed, but that there have been press reports over the weekend of criminal corruption at the heart of the service in the headquarters at Lunar House? That is deeply worrying. Will he add to the inquiry’s terms of reference the possibility of replacing the top operational command of this service, currently exercised by Home Office officials, with the appointment of retired military officers who have spent their professional lives defending the realm?

[Lord Henley]

On my noble friend’s first point, I am aware that there has been a certain amount of criticism over the years of the various controls that we have on our borders—going back, as he pointed out, to Mr John Reid, now the noble Lord, Lord Reid, and others. We are trying to put that right. My noble friend also commented on criminal activity within the UK Border Force. No doubt they are only allegations at this stage, and are another matter that it will be permissible for Mr John Vine to look at in his review. As I said earlier, at the moment we are still discussing the draft terms of reference for the review, but I am sure that he would be more than happy to look at matters of that sort as well.

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

My Lords, is it not the case that Home Office Ministers frequently visit our border posts? In the circumstances, is it not surprising that they did not visit sites where these pilots were taking place—or if they did, that they did not notice or hear from the staff concerned how the pilots had been extended? Can the Minister also tell us what arrangements Ministers made to monitor the pilots and the way in which they were working?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, speaking for myself, I have to say that I have not visited any of the pilots, but then I have not been in the Home Office for that long. No doubt I will make inquiries of my honourable and right honourable friends and let the noble Lord know what visits have been made. However, I believe that Ministers have visited ports and airports on quite a regular basis to see how these things operate. I certainly was intending to do that at some point in the near future, but when I will be able to manage that is another matter. Of course Ministers always want to evaluate any pilot schemes they put into place, whether by visits or by other means.

[Lord Mawhinney]

My Lords, can my noble friend assure the House that when the inquiries are over, the reports have been read and dissected and the dust has settled, we will not lose in that process the concepts of risk assessment and intelligence-led operations?

[Lord Henley]

My noble friend is quite right to say that those are very important. It is obviously important that we do not burden every single individual with a full investigation as they go through. That is why we have different procedures for UK citizens and EU nationals in comparison with what we have for other people. There will always be a place for making decisions based on the perceived risk as seen by the individual officer concerned.

[Lord Stirrup]

My Lords, few would argue with the principle of risk assessment and the targeting of resources more appropriately, but can the Minister tell us whether, as a result of the pilot, the total effort or quantum of scrutiny that went into protecting our borders was increased or reduced?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, it is early days for saying much about the pilot other than that it looks as though it achieved rather good results by focusing on the more high-risk people rather than on the lesser ones. However, no doubt we will be able to tell the noble and gallant Lord more in due course once the pilot has been fully assessed.

[Lord Skidelsky]

My Lords, I am sure the Minister is aware of Adam Smith’s famous remark that defence is more important than opulence. Does he agree that defence is also more important than austerity, and that the security of the realm should not be sacrificed to the cuts?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, we have not sacrificed the security of the realm to cuts either in this area or in other areas. However, I thank the noble Lord, as always, for bringing to my attention another bit of Adam Smith that I was unaware of, but then I was never quite as well educated as I ought to have been, if I had had the chance of sitting at the feet of the noble Lord at an earlier stage in my career.

[Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville]

My Lords, is it appropriate for my noble friend to tell your Lordships’ House by whom the biometric machines are manufactured?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, not without notice, but no doubt I will write to my noble friend.

[Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate]

My Lords, are there lessons to be learnt from the Israelis in this? While people are waiting to be assessed and interviewed by the immigration authorities, assessments are made and they are profiled, and of course in some cases they are targeted very successfully.

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, obviously, lessons are always to be learnt from all around the world. No doubt, if the noble Lord wishes it, we will look at the experience of the Israelis as well as that from other parts.

[Lord Dholakia]

My Lords, one of the allegations made by the Home Affairs Select Committee was that at least 125,000 people have been lost in this country and can no longer be traced. There is no indication of what will happen to them. Would it not be wise to extend the scope of the inquiry to see why those illegal entrants are still in this country?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I think that the noble Lord is trying to take the inquiry on to other, equally important matters which should be looked at. We want John Vine to be able to report by January of next year. Therefore, he should focus on the issues in front of us—that is, why officials were going beyond what was authorised by Ministers, and what Ministers authorised.

[Lord Marlesford]

My Lords, will my noble friend comment on my suggestion that the Vine terms of reference should include the possibility of bringing in the retired military to run this service in the future?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I am sure that Mr Vine will have noted what my noble friend had to say. I am not going to comment at this stage.