Brexit: Customs and Border Staff

Debate between Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Baroness Williams of Trafford

Monday 6th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of additional public employees needed to meet the requirements of Brexit, in particular in customs and border control.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, the White Paper published last week set out the Government’s priorities and the broad strategy for exiting the EU. There is a number of options as to how EU migration and customs checks might work once we have exited the EU. We are considering these options, so it would be wrong to set out a further position at this stage.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, half of Britain’s trade is currently within the single market, so presumably customs checks and the space needed for them will have to be considerably expanded. Two-thirds of visitors come from the EU and the EEA, so I assume that the long queues that we already have at the external border for people going through hard border controls will be immensely lengthened and that we will need to treble the number of border staff. Are the Government already beginning to plan for the extra space and staff they need? If they cannot recruit enough, perhaps we will need to recruit border agency people from eastern Europe.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, the Government will certainly be prepared, if need be, in the way that the noble Lord said. However, the advent of e-passport gates at airports has made it quicker to get through the border, and of course the facial recognition checks at those gates have proved to be very efficient.

Crime: Illegal Arms

Debate between Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Baroness Williams of Trafford

Monday 21st November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, we have increased our maritime capability and Border Force is an active member of the joint Maritime Operations Centre, where it works closely with partner agencies. Border Force is working to enhance its capability by training more firearms dogs and improving detection technologies. The technologies have formed a critical part of the improvement in performance in this area.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

All these criminal networks smuggling into the country are cross-border and international, and the arms which are sloshing around the African continent and eastern Europe are smuggled by links of criminals across a range of different countries. As we withdraw from the European Union we are in severe risk of losing the co-operation in intelligence and policing that we have built up over the past 40 years. Can the Minister assure the House that, as this danger of arms smuggling rises for the UK, we are taking adequate steps to ensure that that crucial co-operation in intelligence and policing continues, and can she tell us something about the framework within which it will be organised?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I can confirm to the noble Lord that we intend to keep up and enhance our joint working capabilities at the border and between member states, both during our membership of the EU and afterwards.

Planning: Trees

Debate between Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Baroness Williams of Trafford

Thursday 14th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister think that democratic local engagement on trees is much more important than democratic local engagement on schools?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I think that they are both important. Democratic local engagement is important full stop.