The future of the UK Border Agency?

John Vine, Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency UK published the report of an Investigation into Border Security Checks in February this year. This sparked an announcement by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, on 20 February 2012 that the UK Border Agency has been split in two from March 2012.

 

The UKBA was set up in 2008 to replace the Home Office’s Immigration Directorate which was declared "not fit for purpose”. It is currently responsible for securing the UK border and for migration controls.

 

Mr. Vine’s investigation took place primarily on the back of allegations that border checks had been suspended or relaxed without prior ministerial authorisation.

 

Mr. Vine stated that "there is an urgent need to establish a new framework of border security checks” which should "unambiguously specify the checks that must be carried out at all times and those where there is discretion to suspend checks…”. Overall, he found "poor communication, poor managerial oversight and a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities”. He also stated that "there was a lack of clarity in the language used with consequent ambiguity when decisions were converted to operational practice” (see pages 4-5 of the report).

 

Under the new arrangements, the UK Border Force will be split from the UK Border Agency and hence immigration policy work will be separated from operational duties. The management of entry to the UK will be handled by a separate entity which will be a separate law-enforcement body with its own distinctive ethos, and which will be accountable directly to ministers. It will be led by its own director general, Wiltshire Chief Constable Brian Moore. The Home Secretary announced that the UK Border Force needed a "whole new management culture”.

 

The challenge will be for the new entity’s ability to successfully address the culture and operating failures of the UKBA but also to outlast its previous incarnation which was in place for only four years.