Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
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.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18824 on UK Border Force: Seasonal Workers, what steps her Department has taken to mitigate the potential loss of capacity provided by the Border Force seasonal workforce.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Border Force’s seasonal workforce staff were recruited on fixed-term contracts to assist at the UK Border, covering shifts when operationally required, such as during peak periods of travel, and subject to their availability. These contracts utilised an authorised exception for short-term recruitment into the Civil Service.
Following an ongoing review of the recruitment process by the Civil Service Commission, Border Force has ceased to use these contracts and now recruits through a regular Civil Service recruitment process. All seasonal workforce staff on existing fixed-term contracts have been invited to apply through this recruitment process.
Our operational priority remains the protection of our border security, and this change will not affect the capacity of Border Force to deliver on that priority.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18824 on UK Border Force: Seasonal Workers, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision to stand down the Border Force seasonal workforce on the operational capacity of Border Force.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Border Force’s seasonal workforce staff were recruited on fixed-term contracts to assist at the UK Border, covering shifts when operationally required, such as during peak periods of travel, and subject to their availability. These contracts utilised an authorised exception for short-term recruitment into the Civil Service.
Following an ongoing review of the recruitment process by the Civil Service Commission, Border Force has ceased to use these contracts and now recruits through a regular Civil Service recruitment process. All seasonal workforce staff on existing fixed-term contracts have been invited to apply through this recruitment process.
Our operational priority remains the protection of our border security, and this change will not affect the capacity of Border Force to deliver on that priority.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure the adequacy of border checks in the context of criminality rules for applications for entry clearance; and what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of border security measures.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Arriving passengers are examined by Border Force and checked against Home Office systems before being allowed into the UK. The system is used by Home Office staff for the purposes of national security and the detection and prevention of crime. It is longstanding policy not to discuss either the specific data held; the source of the data, nor how it is used, as to do so would be counterproductive and not in the public interest.
We have been clear that we will strengthen our border security. Resources are being redeployed to go after the organised criminal gangs who undermine our border security and put lives at risk in small boats. Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and enhance our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those who are facilitating the small boat crossings. The threats we face span geographic boundaries, and we will work closer with international partners, further developing the positive relationships already built by this Government.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 17 September 2024 to Questions 4871 and 4872 on Home Office: Staff, how many of the employees of (a) Immigration Enforcement, (b) UK Visas and Immigration, (c) Border Force, and (d) HM Passport Office who were (i) suspended for gross misconduct, (ii) dismissed for gross misconduct and (iii) convicted of immigration crime were (A) British nationals, (B) non-British nationals and (C) British nationals with dual nationality.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office recruitment process adheres to the requirements of the Civil Service Nationality Rules. Civil Service recruitment: nationality rules - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Eligibility for appointment, including on the grounds of nationality, is assessed during pre-employment checks, but breakdowns of nationality are not conducted in relation to those employers after they have been appointed or leave those roles.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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).
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of the proposed 70 per cent cut in funding from DEFRA from April 2024 for the inspection team of Dover Port Health Authority, and (2) how this will affect the action of this team to maintain UK food safety and security.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
On the 31 January 2023 we introduced the first stage of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) which balances the need to protect biosecurity with the impact on trade. All port health authorities (PHAs) and local authorities (LAs) undertaking the new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks on EU goods from 30 April 2024 will be able to issue charges to recover their costs in the way they do now for Rest of the World goods. In 2022, Defra began providing a temporary financial support package to PHAs and LAs to retain staff until the introduction of the BTOM. In that time, these staff were focused on supporting wider biosecurity work. This included supporting Border Force with enforcing the temporary African Swine Fever (ASF) safeguard measure on pork and pork products from the EU, in place pending implementation of a new SPS policy for goods intended for personal use.
Defra remains committed to protecting biosecurity and we are confident that this will not negatively impact UK food safety and security. We are working closely with all border stakeholders in the lead up to all implementation dates of new SPS controls. We are working with them to train and upskill staff to ensure that any new controls that are brought in are enacted in an efficient manner so as not to disrupt trade, but which crucially will maintain our high biosecurity standards.