Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by Border Force in each month in 2024.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The total number of people employed by Border Force is routinely published within the annual Home Office annual reports and accounts, available at Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Border Force Operational Notification forms.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

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.

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.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

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.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many disabled people worked for Heathrow Border Force before the Heathrow Change Programme.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

The Home Office do not hold the requested information on how many people working for Border Force Heathrow prior to the Change Programme had declared a disability, in an easily accessible format.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people worked for Heathrow Border Force before the Heathrow Change Programme; and what proportion of these were (a) men and (b) women.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

The Home Office would not disclose information which is considered likely to cause prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs.

Border Force staffing numbers can be obtained from the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022 to 2023 (www.gov.uk).

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total workforce of UK Border Force was in each year since 2010.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

The latest published staffing and finance figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2022-2023 at:

Home Office annual report and accounts: 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK Border Force staff have been posted to (a) Belgium, (b) Germany, (c) the Netherlands and (d) France in each of the last five years.

Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

For security reasons, the Home Office does not provide figures of how many staff have worked or are currently working at overseas deployments.

The Home Office continues to ensure appropriate overseas staff resourcing deployments are maintained.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many members of staff were employed by Border Force UK in each year since 2010.

Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

The Home Office would refer you to the previous response to PQ 201533.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff worked for the Border Force in each of the last five years.

Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

Staffing figures for Border Force can be found at Home Office annual report and accounts:

HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the increase in the FTE establishment of Border Force has been since 2021.

Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

Staffing and financial figures for Border Force from 2021 to 2022 can be found at: Home Office annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the total number of full time equivalent staff currently employed within the Small Boats Operational Command; how many new members of staff have joined the Small Boats Operational Command since 31 January 2023; and when she expects to meet her target to recruit 700 new members of staff to Small Boats Operational Command.

Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

For security reasons, we do not give out figures of how many staff are working at a given time or location.

The latest published staffing figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2021-2022 Home Office annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff Border Force Maritime Command had on 1 March 2023.

Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

For security reasons, we do not give out figures of how many staff are working at a given time.

The latest published staffing figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2021-2022.

Home Office annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Home Office on border resourcing and resilience planning in light of recent industrial action by UK Border Force staff.

Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Ministers and officials at the Department for Transport engage regularly with the Home Office on a range of topics, including border resourcing. The Department supports Border Force’s work to keep UK borders safe and secure and will assist Government partners to work with industry and provide expertise.  During recent industrial action at UK airports in December, the Government ensured that all ports remained open. There was minimal disruption to operations and passengers as a result.

Found: Across the UK, Border Force staff will be giving up time with loved ones to maintain the integrity of