UK Border Agency

UK Border Agency
Logo of the UK Border Agency.
Agency overview
Formed	1 April, 2008
Preceding agencies	Border and Immigration Agency UKvisas port of entry functions of HM Revenue and Customs
Employees	23,500
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency (Operations jurisdiction)	UK
Legal jurisdiction	UK
General nature	Law enforcement Civilian agency
Specialist jurisdictions	National border patrol, security, and integrity. Customs.
Operational structure
Headquarters	2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
Sworn members	10,000
Unsworn members	10,000
Minister responsible	Damian Green, Minister of State for Immigration
Agency executive	Rob Whiteman, Chief Executive
Parent agency	Home Office
Facilities
UKBA 42m Customs Cutters	Five
Planes	Yes
Detection dogs	Over 100
Website
http://ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) is the border control agency of the United Kingdom (UK) government and an Executive Agency of the Home Office. It was formed on 1 April 2008 by a merger of the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), UKvisas and the Detection functions of HM Revenue and Customs. The decision to create a single border control organisation was taken following a Cabinet Office report. The agency 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.

Its head office is 2 Marsham Street, London. In 2011, the Chief Executive is Rob Whiteman.

The agency has come under formal criticism from the Parliamentary Ombudsman for consistently poor service, a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases, and a large and increasing number of complaints. In the first nine months of 2009-10, 97% of investigations reported by the Ombudsman resulted in a complaint against the agency being upheld. The complainants were asylum, residence, or other immigration applicants.

Role

Further information: Illegal immigration to the United Kingdom

The UK Border Agency has a staff of 23,000 people located in over 130 countries. The agency plans to reduce this by around 5,200 between 2011 and 2015. Overseas staff vet visa applications and operate an intelligence and liaison network, acting as the first layer of border control for the UK.

A UK Border Agency officer examines counterfeit football shirts upon their arrival in the United Kingdom

The organisation operates as the single force at the border for the UK. In August 2009 HM Revenue and Customs transferred several thousand customs detection officers to the agency, following Parliament agreeing to give it customs control powers. The agency now investigates smuggling. The agency is developing a single primary border control line at the UK border combining controls of people and goods entering the country.

The agency's e-Borders programme checks travellers to and from the UK. They are checked in advance of travel using data provided by passengers via their airline or ferry operators. The organisation uses automatic clearance gates at main international airports.

The agency is managing the UK Government's limit on non-European economic migration to the UK. It is responsible for in-country enforcement operations, investigating organised immigration crime and to detecting immigration offenders including illegal entrants and overstayers. The body is also responsible for the deportation of foreign national criminals at the end of sentences.

UK Border Agency's budget is £2.2 billion. Under the spending review the agency will cut costs by up to 20%. At its peak the agency employed around 25,000 staff, but 5200 posts are being cut by 2015.

Founding Chief Executive Lin Homer left the agency in January 2011 to become the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport. Deputy Chief Executive Jonathan Sedgwick was acting chief until the new CEO, Rob Whiteman, took over on 26 September 2011. Jonathan Sedwick has now taken command of the International Group within the agency.

The former strategic immigration policy functions of the agency moved to the Home Office in July 2011.

Structure

Lunar House, headquarters of the UK Border Agency.

The agency is divided into several commands:

• International group – managing all work outside the UK including visa issuing overseas and pre-flight checks but excluding juxtaposed controls.
• Border Force – managing ports of entry, the border targeting centre, air/maritime operations and juxtaposed controls in France and Belgium.
• Immigration group – managing all "in-country" operational areas such as casework functions and enforcement.
• Criminality & detention - undertakes criminal investigations, managing criminal cases , manages detention and removal centres and removes foreign national prisoners.

Both the Immigration group and Border Force operate regional command structures. Within the regions there are Local Immigration Teams (LITs).

The Government is planning to introduce a border policing command as part of a new National Crime Agency. UK Border Agency tasking will be informed by the intelligence and threat asessments produced by the command. It is likely that the new command will also be able to call on agency assets for operations against cross-border organised crime gangs.

Oversight

It is monitored by the The Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency John Vine.

Powers

UKBA Cutters, such as HMC Searcher, are capable of top speeds of 26 knots

The UKBA often cooperates with the Police, such as at this customs raid

At the moment, staff hold a mixture of powers granted to them by their status as immigration officers and customs officers.

Immigration powers

Main article: Immigration officer

Immigration officers have the power of arrest and detention conferred on them by the Immigration Act 1971, when both at ports and inland. In practice, border force officers exercise powers under Schedule 2 of the Immigration Act 1971 and inland immigration officers under S28A-H of the Immigration Act 1971 and paragraph 17 of Schedule 2. This has led to separate training for border and inland officers.

This act is applicable in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. "Designated Immigration Officers" are port immigration officers who have been trained in detention under PACE. UK Border Agency immigration officers wear a uniform with rank insignia. Enforcement immigration officers wear body armour and carry handcuffs and ASP batons.

The Offices of the UK Border Agency in Sheffield.

Customs powers

Main article: Customs officer

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.

Future powers

The agency attained full agency status on 1 April 2009. Immigration Officers and Customs Officers retained their own powers for the enforcement and administration of the UK's borders, although management of the new organisation is integrated and progressively officers are cross trained and empowered to deal with customs and immigration matters at the border.The Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 received Royal Assent on 21 July 2009. This allows the concurrent exercise of customs powers by HMRC Commissioners and the Director of Border Revenue; it is the first step in overhauling immigration and customs legislation.

Performance

The UK Border Agency removes foreign national criminals at the end of their prison terms Over 5000 foreign national prisoners are deported each year. The agency also removes failed asylum seekers and others illegally in the UK. A 2009 report by the National Audit Office cited lack of detention space to support the asylum process. The agency has over 3000 detention spaces in removal centres run by private contractors or the Prison Service.

There have also been difficulties with the management of student visas under Tier 4 of the Points-Based System. The assessment of the Independent Chief Inspector was summarized by one news report as "Good at making cash, crap at making decisions".

In November 2011, the Home Affairs Select Committee issued a report that found that 124,000 deportation cases had been shelved by the UKBA. The report said the cases had been dumped in a "controlled archive", a term used to try to hide the fact from authorities and auditors that it was a list of lost applicants.

Immigration control

UKBA officers man the UK border at London Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5

A UK visa (with entry stamp) issued for the purpose of pursuing a working holiday

Common travel area

Immigration control within the United Kingdom is managed within a wider Common Travel Area (CTA). The CTA is an intergovernmental agreement that allows freedom of movement within an area that encompasses the UK, Isle of Man, Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Sark and Alderney) and the Republic of Ireland. Authorised entry to any 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, i.e. 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.

UK Border Agency Checkpoints in France

• Gare de Calais-Fréthun
• Gare de Lille Europe
• Channel Tunnel
• Calais ferry terminal
• Dunkirk ferry terminal
• Gare du Nord station, Paris

Previously, Boulogne-sur-Mer. No checkpoint since its port closed in August 2010.

Controversy

Following allegations that staff were told to relax some identity checks, in November 2011 the UK Home Office suspended: Brodie Clark, the Head of UK Border Force; Carole Upshall, director of the Border Force South and European Operation; Graham Kyle, director of operations at Heathrow Airport. The Home Office is presently investigating allegations that Clark had agreed to "open up the borders" at certain times in ways ministers would "not have agreed with". It is alleged that between July and the end of October 2011, queues at passport control were "managed" so as not to annoy holiday makers. The BBC reported that staff may have been told not to scan biometric passports at certain times, which contain a digital image of the holder's face, which can be used to compare with the printed version and check the passport has not been forged. It is also believed that "warning index checks" at Heathrow and Calais were also suspended, which would have applied strict security checks against official watchlists of terrorists, criminals, and deported illegal immigrants.

After Clark refused the offer to take early retirement, he was suspended and the investigation begun. Two investigations are being undertaken:

• Dave Wood, ex-Metropolitan Police detective, currently Head of enforcement and crime group, UKBA: two-week inquiry designed to discover to what extent checks were scaled down, and what the security implications might have been
• Mike Anderson, Ex-MI6 official, presently director general of the strategy, immigration and international group at the Home Office: investigate wider issues relating to the performance of UKBA regarding racism.

It was then announced on 5 November by Home Secretary Theresa May, that an independent inquiry would also be undertaken, led by the Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency, John Vine.

See also

• Illegal immigration to the United Kingdom
• Asylum shopping
• UK Immigration Service
• HM Customs and Excise

External links

• UK Border Agency official website
• UKVisas website