Oral Answers to Questions

Anna Turley Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Anna Turley (Redcar) (Lab/Co-op)]

3. What resources her Department provides for security measures at UK ports.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

16. What resources her Department provides for security measures at UK ports.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

Border Force carries out 100% checks of all arriving passengers on scheduled services. It works closely with other law enforcement organisations to deliver effective and intelligence-led responses to a range of security threats. Officers use high-tech equipment and an array of search techniques to combat immigration crime, and detect banned and restricted goods.

[Anna Turley]

I thank the Home Secretary for that answer. Last September, seven men and five children were found in a container in Teesport in my constituency, just three weeks after 20 illegal immigrants were found in South Shields. My local Border Force is facing cuts of about a quarter of its front-line staff, so how can she reassure me that these cuts are not damaging the safety and security of ports outside London and the south-east?

[Mrs May]

I can reassure the hon. Lady about that, because the approach we are taking comes across in a number of ways. We are looking not only to introduce new technology in Border Force but to ensure that it can operate flexibly and base its activities much more on an intelligence-led approach, so that we can target where the staff need to be. This Government have also enhanced our ability to deal with organised immigration crime through the creation of the organised immigration crime taskforce. The National Crime Agency, set up by the last coalition Government, is also taking this issue seriously and is acting on it.