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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

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