Home Office ‘woefully unprepared for Brexit’
BRITAIN’S overstretched Border Force lacks the capacity to cope with extra checks once the UK leaves the European Union in 2019, MPs have warned.
A highly critical cross-party report warns that the country’s security will be put at risk if changes are rushed through without the necessary resources.
Cardiff South and Penarth Labour MP Stephen Doughty – a member of the Home Affairs committee – said the Home Office was “woefully unprepared” for the task of Brexit.
Today’s report warns that “life-changing” mistakes are already being made.
The MPs take the UK Government to task for “completely unacceptable” delays in setting out it plans for the future of the immigration system, warning that changes may be “impossible to deliver on time”.
Warning that the Border Force is already in trouble, the MPs state: “This is a system which has not functioned properly for a number of years, in large
part due to insufficient staffing...
“The Government needs to clarify whether it wants additional checks at the border on [people from the European Economic Area] entering the UK after March 2019 or not. It is clear to us that Border Force does not currently have the capacity to deliver this and will struggle to put sufficient additional capacity and systems in place – particularly if it also faces additional pressure to carry out customs checks as a result of the Government’s decisions on a customs union.”
They add it would be “unacceptable to switch Border Force staff away from security and immigration checks to deal with new customs checks”.
The report warns of Home Office teams already “struggling with a lack of resources, high turnover of staff and unrealistic workloads”.
It warns: “A lack of experienced staff and pressure to meet targets has meant that mistakes are being made that have life-changing consequences... We note that the number of cases going to court has fallen, but this is largely because access to justice has been restricted, not because initial decisions have improved.
“This is an unacceptable way to run an immigration system.”
Warning that Welsh ports could face specific challenges from Brexit, they highlight the “lack of time left to make substantial changes to the border arrangements for either goods or people before March 2019 without significant disruption, problems or security challenges”.
They caution: “Rushed and underresourced changes will put border security at risk. The lack of clarity on the future relationship with Ireland also poses particular challenges for Scottish and Welsh ports, and of course for Northern Ireland...
“[The] Government should aim to agree transitional arrangements with the EU which involve no practical change to customs operations, either in the UK or the EU.”
In a further blast, they state that systems are still not in place to register EU citizens and stress the “anxiety” the Government is causing.
Their report states: “The delay to the proposed White Paper has caused anxiety for EU citizens in the UK, uncertainty for UK businesses, and concern in Parliament about the consistency with which the Government is approaching post-Brexit immigration policy. It is extremely regrettable that the Government has delayed the White Paper and that there now appears to be no clear timetable for it to be published at all, or for the promised Immigration Bill.”
Cardiff South and Penarth’s Mr Doughty said the report demonstrated why people had the right to “change their mind” about the country’s future.
He said: “This report shows after listening extensively to experts who work within and alongside the Home Office just how severe the consequences of Brexit will be for the practical side of life... It is clear that the Home Office is woefully unprepared and the scale of the task before them, given the already huge delays and problems with the immigration system, should be deeply worrying fo everyone.
“The end state of Brexit is as yet unclear but it is clear that the Home Office is not prepared for any of the options that are before us.
“As ever, as the British people and Welsh people find out more about the real world consequences of Brexit they have their right to change their mind on the options before them.”
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “We agree with the finding of this comprehensive report and join calls for the UK Government to publish its long-awaited immigration white paper. With little over a year until the UK formally leaves the EU, it is crucial agreement is reached within weeks on a transition phase that gives certainty to EU citizens and gives the Government time to prepare for the future changes needed to our administrative systems.
“We published our approach to post-Brexit migration last September. Our paper provides a realistic and rational position for the whole of the UK and sets out a managed approach to migration, linked closely to employment, while allowing continued access to the single market and retaining membership of a customs union.”
Plaid Cymru’s Brexit spokesman Hywel Williams said: “This is yet another display of the chaos within Westminster with a government rapidly losing control. Their blind obsession with making Brexit as hard as possible, isolating ourselves completely once we leave the EU is set to take some £5bn out of the Welsh economy, cause undue stress and anxiety for our valued EU citizens living here and gamble away people’s wages and cost of living.”
Eloise Todd, chief executive of the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, said: “The Government are unready, unprepared and lacking resources to protect our border post-Brexit. This is the equivalent of a political character assassination of both Theresa May and Amber Rudd as their fellow MPs tell them they are failing in their basic duty to the keep the country safe.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “It is ridiculous to suggest that we are not preparing sufficiently for leaving the EU.
“It is precisely for this reason that we have already invested £60m in 2017/18, are planning to recruit an additional 1,500 staff across the immigration, borders and citizenship system and are well advanced in the development of a new scheme to give EU citizens currently here, the right to stay after Brexit.
“We will keep staffing under review as negotiations progress, but will always ensure we have the resources and workforce we need to run an effective system.”
AMAJOR report today sounds the alarm bell about the challenge facing the UK’s Border Force as the country races towards leaving the European Union.
Quite simply, as things stand, it will not be able to cope with a duty to deliver more checks.
Today’s cross-party report highlights cast grave doubt on the UK government’s readiness for Brexit Day in March 2019.
It is not just that civil servants face a monumental challenge in putting the systems in place to deal with new immigration rules. The government has yet to publish its long-anticipated White Paper setting out how a new system would work.
This raises the prospect of officials scrambling to train staff and install new IT systems in the immediate run-up to our departure.
From a pragmatic point of view this is worrying as Whitehall is not famed for an ability to deliver major projects – especially those which involve linking computers together – on time and on budget. The fiasco of the cancelled rail electrification projects will not be forgotten in a hurry, but the management of who comes in and out of the country is a matter of national security.
There are also democratic concerns. The longer the government waits before setting out its plans for the transition phase, the longterm relationship with the EU and an immigration system which will affect the lives of millions of people, the less chance there is for politicians and ordinary people to debate the proposals.
Citizens and parliamentarians alike should not be fobbed off with the argument that the government should not show its negotiating hand when it is in the throes of talks with the EU. What’s at stake is not the outcome of a poker match, but the destiny of this country of nations.
The internal politics of one political party – especially one that lost an outright majority in a recent election – should not be allowed to determine the shape of Brexit. The UK we pass on to future generations will be affected at every level by the events of the coming months and we botch this process at our peril.
Common sense tells us that rushed changes risk undermining border security. Equally, the MPs make a compelling case for keeping customs arrangements the same during the transition period.
The committee is also right to flag up the human toll of the present uncertainty.
People who run businesses are frustrated that it is so hard to plan for the future but citizens from across the European Economic Area who have settled here face real anxiety.
Already, a “lack of experienced staff and pressure to meet targets has meant that mistakes are being made that have life-changing consequences”. Things could get much, much worse if an already struggling system is stretched past breaking-point.
It should be perfectly possible to respect the result of the 2016 referendum without unleashing chaos.