UK Border Agency
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| UK Border Agency | |
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| Logo of the UK Border Agency. | |
| Agency Overview | |
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| Formed | 1 April, 2008 |
| Preceding agencies | |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional Structure | |
| National agency | UK |
| Governing body | Home Office |
| General nature |
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| Specialist jurisdictions |
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| Operational Structure | |
| Sworn members | 10,000 |
| Unsworn members | 15,000 |
| Minister responsible | Phil Woolas, Minister of State for Borders and Immigration |
| Agency executive | Lin Homer, Director |
| Website | |
| http://ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ | |
The UK Border Agency came into existence on 1 April 2008. Formed as a result of a Cabinet Office report,[1] a decision was taken to merge the Border and Immigration Agency, UKvisas and the port of entry functions of HM Revenue and Customs into one new integrated border control body. It is headed by Lin Homer, who was chief executive of the BIA, and is divided into three broad command structures, each under the management of a Senior Director:
- external controls including visa issue in overseas posts
- borders, including passport and Customs controls
- internal immigration controls including asylum, management of applications for further stay and enforcement.
Common Travel Area:- Immigration control within the United Kingdom is governed by the Common Travel Area agreement that allows freedom of movement within an area that encompasses, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Isle of man, Channel Islands and the Republic of Ireland. Entry to one of the above essentially allows entry to all the others but it is the responsibility of the person entering to ensure that they are properly documented for entry to other parts of the CTA. Despite the CTA it is still possible to be deported from the UK to the Republic of Ireland and vice versa.
Juxtaposed Controls:- Entry to the UK via the Channel Tunnel from France or Belgium or by ferry through selected ports in North East France is controlled by Juxtaposed immigration controls in Britain, France, and Belgium ie: travellers clear UK passport control in France or Belgium and those travelling to France or Belgium clear French controls while in the UK. Belgium does not maintain controls in the UK.
Contents |
[edit] Role
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008) |
UKBA has a total staff of 25,000 people located in over forty countries. It is playing a leading role in the introduction of biometric identity cards for foreign nationals which will be introduced by the end 2008 which are based on fingerprint data. UKBA has also experimented with the use of iris scans to record peoples identity. UKBA is a key stakeholder in the e-Borders programme whose purpose is to create a massive database of travellers and will analyse the movements of people in and out of the UK. The e-Borders system, in common with many other government IT initiatives, has caused concern regarding cost over runs.[2] UKBA has, in 2008, launched a points based system of determining whether to grant longer term entry to the UK based largely on the well established Australian system.
UKBA is responsible for the management of in-country enforcement operations to detect immigration offenders including illegal entrants and overstayers. It is also responsible for the deportation of foreign national criminals and for combating illegal working. The mis-management of foreign national criminals resulted in crisis in 2006 when it was revealed that over 1000 criminals had been released without being deported.[4] The ensuing scandal cost the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke his job but the Chief Executive Lin Homer remained in post. A blanket policy since then of detaining foreign criminals beyond their original sentences has recently come under close scrutiny.
UKBA has a £1 Billion pound annual budget and is under pressure to cut costs and resources. It is undergoing a major long term re-structuring that will result in a regionalised organisation. UKBA appears to intend to devolve as many functions, (and staff), as possible from its current Croydon HQ. UKBA committed to double the resources for enforcement operations in 2008 and to improve partnership working with other government agencies.[5]
[edit] Powers
At the moment, staff hold a mixture of powers granted to them by their status as immigration officers and customs officers. See the section below for more information.
[edit] Immigration powers
Immigration officers have the power of arrest and detention whether they are at a port or inland, which is conferred on them by the Immigration Act 1971. In practice, port Immigration Officers exercise powers under Schedule 2 of the Immigration Act 1971 and inland Immigration Officers exercise powers under S28A-H of the Immigration Act 1971 and paragraph 17 of Schedule 2. This has led to separate training for port and inland Immigration officers, where port IOs are not training in PACE. "Designated Immigration Officers" are port Immigration Officers that have been trained in detention under PACE.
[edit] Customs powers
Customs officers have wide-ranging powers of entry, search and detention. The main power is to detain anyone who has committed, or who the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect has committed, any offence under the Customs and Excise Acts.[6]
[edit] Future powers
UKBA attained full agency status on 1st April 2009. Immigration Officers and Customs Officers retain their own powers for the enforcement and administration of the UK's borders, although management of the new organisation has already begun to integrate. The Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill[7] is now before Parliament (January 2009). This will transfer some customs powers to the Agency as the first step in overhauling immigration and customs legislation, details are on the UKBA website.
[edit] Performance
Immigration and asylum statistics are published on line, [[RDS[1]]]
UKBA announced at the beginning of 2009 that it had achieved its objective of deporting 5000 foreign national prisoners during the year and has successfully rolled out a programme of identity cards for foreign nationals. The 2009 report by the National Audit Office cites lack of detention space to support the asylum process.[8] UKBA has currently a backlog of applications under EEA Regulations but aims to be within service standards by the end of 2009.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Border Review
- ^ Accountancy Age article
- ^ "News release: Preventing drugs and other illegal goods from being smuggled into Britain.". UK Border Agency. 2008-07-09. http://ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2008/preventingsmuggling.
- ^ Guardian article
- ^ Enforcing the Deal
- ^ Section 138, Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (c. 2)
- ^ Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill
- ^ Audit Office report
- ^ EEA applications processing times
[edit] External links
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