Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will publish standardised best practice guides for Border Force Operational Support Officers.

The Operation Notification Form (ONF) is used by Immigration, Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) teams outside the Metropolitan Police area

Its purpose is to enable Immigration Enforcement (IE) to request local police assistance for an enforcement visit or notify the police of a planned enforcement visit where no additional local police assistance is required. It is used by IE to gather intelligence held by the police regarding the subjects and addresses they plan to visit. In addition, it enables local police to carry out an equalities and community impact assessment of the proposed visit and allows IE to notify police of the result of the visit using the intelligence feedback report

Operational business assurance standards provide officers with guidance relating to the use of ONFs / equivalent police checks. Assurance checks for ONFs have been conducted in past operational assurance reviews

Published guidance on the ONF can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/powers-and-operational-procedure/enforcement-planning-assessments-accessible.

The role of ‘Operational Support Officer’ is not a standard position within every operational team / unit within IE, therefore the department would not consider creating a standardised best practice guide for this position

Guidance for officers dealing with immigration enforcement matters is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/enforcement-instructions-and-guidance.