UK Border Agency to be scrapped

26 March 2013 Last updated at 10:31 ET

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The UK Border Agency is to be abolished with its work returning to the Home Office, Theresa May has announced.

The home secretary told MPs "its performance was not good enough".

The UK Border Agency was formed in 2008 as an arms-length agency of the Home Office but Mrs May said this had led to a "secretive culture".

It will now be split into parts focusing on the visa system and on immigration law enforcement. Both parts will report directly to ministers.

It is the second time the UK Border Agency has been split in just over a year.

Last year, Mrs May announced that the UK Border Force - responsible for day-to-day operations - would stop being part of the agency and become a separate law-enforcement body.

'Not fit for purpose'

The home secretary said the improvement in performance of the Border Force showed the benefits of having smaller, more focused structures.

Mrs May's latest statement comes after fresh criticism of the agency's performance.

MPs criticised the border agency in a report published on Monday, describing it as "not fit for purpose".

The Home Affairs Committee also said that for years the UK Border Agency had repeatedly supplied it with incorrect information about the size of the backlog of asylum cases.

The agency was created in 2008 by the merger of the Border and Immigration Agency, UKvisas and parts of HM Revenue and Customs.

This followed Labour Home Secretary John Reid's 2006 declaration that the Home Office's immigration directorate was "not fit for purpose".

The UK Border Agency is responsible for securing the UK border at air, rail and sea ports and migration controls, such as the issuing of visas. It has faced frequent criticism over its performance.

The UK Border Agency employs the full-time equivalent of 23,500 people across the world, including 13,100 in the UK.

Its chief executive is Rob Whiteman, who is due to face questions from MPs on the Home Affairs Committee shortly after Mrs May's statement.

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Border agency condemned over backlog

24 March 2013 Last updated at 20:32 ETBy Dominic Casciani Home affairs correspondent

Ms Homer said the events described had occurred after she left the agency

MPs say the UK Border Agency is still plagued by backlogs of unresolved immigration cases.

The Home Affairs Committee said it had been supplied incorrect data by the agency for six years, and "repeatedly misled" by former head Lin Homer.

Ms Homer, now the head of Revenue and Customs, said the accusation was unfair and untrue.

The report comes as the prime minister announces steps to restrict the rights of some immigrants to social housing.

In its latest report into the immigration agency, the committee said that for six years UKBA had repeatedly supplied incorrect information about the size of the asylum backlog and measures supposedly being taken to trace others with whom officials had lost contact.

The MPs said the failure to trace these other migrants, whose cases were placed in a closed "controlled archive", led officials to conclude that they were not in the UK when in fact tens of thousands of them could be.

The report said that the total backlog of unresolved or disputed immigration cases in the UK was 312,726 at the end of September last year - but it was not possible to be sure if that figure was accurate. Officials say the committee's figures include cases that have either been closed or should not be considered as part of a backlog.

"Lin Homer, who was in charge of the Agency for much of the period in question, has repeatedly misled the Committee over the size of the asylum backlog and still refuses to take responsibility for her failings," said the committee.

"It is shocking that after five years under Lin Homer's leadership an organisation that was described at the beginning of the period as being 'not fit for purpose' should have improved its performance so little.

"Given this background, we are astounded that Ms Homer has been promoted to become Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and can therefore have little confidence in her ability to lead HMRC at what is a challenging time for that organisation."

Ms Homer has already written to the committee to refute the allegations which she says relate to events after she left the agency 18 months ago.

"The suggestion that I deliberately misled the Committee and refused to apologise are both untrue and unfair," she said in the letter. "It is therefore wholly inaccurate and unfair to seek to ascribe responsibility to me for matters of concern that occurred long after I left the Agency."

'Turning it around'

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said that Ms Homer had proven to be a "highly effective chief executive" and was the right person to lead HMRC.

Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: "We have always been clear that the UK Border Agency was a troubled organisation with a poor record of delivery.

"Turning it around will take time but I am determined to provide the public with an immigration system they can have confidence in."

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