Private jets border farce
Sacked watchdog labels airport security breaches ‘unacceptable’
THE sacked borders watchdog called last night for an immediate inquiry into an alleged ‘shocking’ security breach.
David Neal questioned whether ministers were ‘aware all along’ that ‘high-risk’ private jet flights had been landing in Britain without passengers undergoing passport checks.
Yesterday, the Home Office finally published a heavily-censored version of his report – five weeks after the Daily Mail disclosed blunders at Britain’s porous border.
Mr Neal warned there had been security failures at ‘national level’ in the handling of private jets and chartered aircraft, known as ‘general aviation’.
But the Home Office’s extensive redactions of his report – with 69 sections censored – makes it impossible to assess how many jets are landing without full checks. Officials claimed the editing had been made for ‘national security reasons’.
Mr Neal, writing exclusively in the Mail, says: ‘The Home Office should launch an independent inspection of the security surrounding general aviation as a whole. This is essential to find out if border security failings are wider than just City Airport.’
He adds: ‘The excessive redaction of the report prompts a series of grave questions. Were ministers aware all along that highrisk flights were not being vetted properly?
‘In the face of national threats including terrorists, organised crime, people trafficking and exploitation, no right-minded person would think this acceptable security.’ Mr Neal, a former head of the Royal Military Police, said last month that City Airport handled 1,305 general aviation flights last year. Of those, 687 were categorised as high-risk, according to figures provided to him by the UK Border Force.
All these flights should have been inspected in person by officials, according to Home Office rules. But only 144 flights were examined face to face. Those details were censored from yesterday’s report.
A Tory MP last night said Home Secretary James Cleverly had ‘tried to hide migrant numbers from us for months but this cover-up is a step too far’. A separate report by Mr Neal, also published yesterday, showed he raised serious concerns about the Home Office’s operation of a visa system for foreign care workers.
It said 275 certificates were granted to a care home that did not exist and more than 1,200 to a firm with four employees.
Border Force chief Phil Douglas said: ‘The security of the UK border is our number one priority, which is why we perform robust security checks on those arriving in the UK.
‘I explained to Mr Neal there was an issue with data recording at City Airport which meant a large proportion of general aviation flights recorded as high-risk should have been classified as low-risk, which led him to draw the wrong conclusion.
‘I offered Mr Neal the opportunity to meet so I could explain this point further, which he did not take up. When we are notified of a general aviation flight, Border Force makes all the appropriate security checks in line with standard protocols.’