PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament
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1503 UK Border Agency<br />
26 MARCH 2013<br />
UK Border Agency<br />
1504<br />
Mrs May: I am afraid to say that, yet again, we<br />
received a characteristic response from the shadow Home<br />
Secretary. We still have not had an apology for Labour’s<br />
mass uncontrolled immigration, and we have had no<br />
apology today for the state in which the previous Labour<br />
Government created and then left the Border Agency.<br />
I can reveal to the House today, however, that the<br />
shadow Home Secretary now has an immigration policy.<br />
In a recent article for PoliticsHome, she said:<br />
“We need much stronger action against illegal immigration to<br />
be a priority.”<br />
I am sure that everyone in the House would agree, but<br />
how does the shadow Home Secretary propose to get<br />
there? We need, she said, a “taskforce”. So, that is it.<br />
That is how the Opposition think that we will get control<br />
of our immigration system: the classic new Labour<br />
solution of a taskforce.<br />
After all the comments the right hon. Lady made, let<br />
us remember who we have to thank for the structure<br />
that is being dealt with today. The plans to create<br />
UKBA were set out in a paper published by the Cabinet<br />
Office in November 2007. Who was the Minister for the<br />
Cabinet Office at the time? None other than her boss,<br />
the Leader of the Opposition.<br />
The right hon. Lady cited a number of figures and raised<br />
a range of issues. She referred to the fact that, to use her<br />
terms, two thirds of visas were not processed on time. I<br />
have news for her: more than 90% of visas are processed<br />
within the performance target time. She referred to clearing<br />
up the backlogs, which originated with the Government<br />
of whom she was a member. I will respond to the point,<br />
nevertheless. The structural changes that we are making<br />
today will make for better-run organisations with greater<br />
clarity and greater focus, with more transparency, more<br />
accountability and stronger management. That, as we<br />
have seen with the Border Force, will deliver better<br />
performance; but it is not the only answer, which is why<br />
I have also referred to the need for us to change the law,<br />
deal with the IT systems and improve the processes<br />
in the organisation. It will take time, but today’s<br />
announcements are an important start.<br />
The right hon. Lady made a number of references to<br />
the Border Force and its performance. Until I took the<br />
Border Force out of UKBA last year, it was not possible<br />
to tell what its performance was. The Vine report,<br />
published last year, showed that checks were being<br />
suspended routinely and without permission for many<br />
years. That is no longer the case, thanks to the changes<br />
that I made.<br />
The right hon. Lady cited numerous statistics about<br />
the performance of the Border Agency, but I suggest<br />
that she should have listened to my statement. I know that<br />
the performance of the Border Agency is not good<br />
enough. It never has been. That is why we are making<br />
the changes that I have announced today. The question<br />
for the right hon. Lady is whether or not she supports<br />
those changes.<br />
The right hon. Lady asked when the changes will be<br />
made. The agency status will be removed at the beginning<br />
of April, and I shall return to the House with a further<br />
statement on the detail of the structural changes in due<br />
course. She said that there had been no reference until<br />
today to the possibility of changes to UKBA, but that is<br />
not right. If she had paid attention during Home Office<br />
questions yesterday, she would have heard my hon.<br />
Friend the Minister for Immigration refer to the fact<br />
that I would bring forward proposals. The Prime Minister<br />
also referred to that fact in his excellent speech on<br />
immigration yesterday.<br />
The right hon. Lady suggested that I have made this<br />
statement only in response to the report from the Home<br />
Affairs Committee that was published yesterday, but<br />
the decision has been taken after many hours of serious<br />
work over many months. If I restructured UKBA every<br />
time the Select Committee criticised it, I would have<br />
restructured it on more than one occasion. [HON.MEMBERS:<br />
“Quarterly.”] My hon. Friends are suggesting that we<br />
would have done so quarterly, and I am grateful to my<br />
hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert),<br />
who is a member of that Committee and knows that the<br />
restructurings would have been rather more numerous<br />
than the one that I am suggesting today.<br />
We must remember why the Border Agency got into<br />
this situation. After the mess that the previous Government<br />
made of the immigration system, John Reid turned up<br />
at the Home Office, called the immigration system not<br />
fit for purpose and, instead of fixing it, turned it into an<br />
agency at arm’s length to keep all the trouble away from<br />
Ministers. That was a soundbite with no substance; but<br />
under the right hon. Lady, the Labour party is regressing,<br />
as she does not even have a soundbite. The Government<br />
have a very clear plan to get net migration down to the<br />
tens of thousands and to sort out the enforcement of<br />
our immigration laws. The Opposition have nothing.<br />
She is not serious; they are not serious; and the British<br />
people know that they cannot trust Labour with<br />
immigration.<br />
Several hon. Members rose—<br />
Mr Speaker: Order. I remind the House that,<br />
notwithstanding the notable interest in this statement, it<br />
is to be followed by three debates, to which no fewer<br />
than 48 right hon. and hon. Members wish to contribute,<br />
so there is a premium on brevity.<br />
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) (Con):<br />
I hope that my right hon. Friend will take absolutely no<br />
advice from the Labour party, which delivered massive<br />
net immigration and an asylum backlog of 450,000 and<br />
put in no transitional arrangements for eastern Europeans<br />
when it was in office. I congratulate her on applying<br />
common sense by taking back responsibility at ministerial<br />
level for the security of this country’s borders. Can she<br />
confirm that placing the new bodies that she has announced<br />
today under the direct supervision of Ministers will<br />
ensure the maximum scrutiny of the work that they do?<br />
Mrs May: I thank my right hon. Friend for her<br />
remarks. I can indeed confirm that we will be increasing<br />
scrutiny of the work that is done in relation to the<br />
immigration and visa system and immigration enforcement<br />
by bringing it into the Home Office, under a board<br />
chaired by the permanent secretary and reporting to<br />
Ministers. It is common sense and the right approach to<br />
deal with the problem caused by the creation of the<br />
agency under the previous Government.<br />
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab): May I congratulate<br />
the Home Secretary on putting the <strong>United</strong> <strong>Kingdom</strong><br />
backlogs agency out of its misery by delivering this<br />
lethal injection today? May I join her in paying tribute<br />
to colleagues on the Home Affairs Committee, especially