UK Border Agency split
9 April 2013
On 26 March 2013 Home Secretary Theresa May announced that the "closed, defensive and secretive" UK Border Agency would be no more. Instead, the agency will be split into two separate units within the Home Office: one dealing with the visa system (an 'immigration and visa service') and the other an immigration law enforcement division. There will no longer be an agency status, as both parts will report directly to ministers.As we know, the UK Border Agency as it currently stands is in a sorry state of affairs, with a backlog of more than 300,000 unresolved asylum and immigration cases, inadequate computer systems, huge delays in decision-making and opaque practices.
Mark Sedwill, the new Home Office permanent secretary, has told his staff: "Most of us will still be doing the same job in the same place with the same colleagues for the same boss with the same mission". This was no doubt intended to reassure his staff, but has been interpreted by some as evidence that the changes are cosmetic. The government insists otherwise. Time will tell, but at least the ills of the agency have been acknowledged and correctly identified - the first step towards effecting a cure.