Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of HMRC staffing at UK ports to ensure efficient throughput of goods in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Border Force has implemented a sustained recruitment campaign to uplift the number of permanent Border Force staff, including 2,000 staff specifically for EU Exit, alongside recruitment for other ‘business as usual’ operational requirements. It maintains a flexible and dynamic approach to recruitment, that takes account of expected staff attrition and churn within the organisation.

Furthermore, Border Force regularly reviews its capacity plans and resources, redeploying and recruiting staff where necessary to help meet and maintain service standards for individual services. There is an established and dedicated internal operation to ensure additional contingency resources are available to deploy in support of short-term operational pressures at the border.

Border Force is confident that resources to meet anticipated overall operational requirements are in place; recruiting sufficient additional frontline staff and continuing to build staffing levels during 2021/2022.