Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness proposed in Amendment 1 a new clause that would have created a UK border police force separate from the agency. That amendment has been resisted. The effect of this amendment to Clause 26 would be that the independent chief inspector would have only an oversight role in respect of those immigration, asylum and nationality functions exercised by the Border and Immigration Agency. The intention underpinning Clause 26, however, is that the chief inspector should oversee the full range of functions to be exercised by the UK Border Agency, including those customs functions for which the agency will have primary responsibility at the border. The UK Border Agency was established in shadow form in April 2008 and, as a result, the Border and Immigration Agency no longer exists. That being so, the independent external scrutiny provided by the chief inspector needs to cover all the functions of the UK Border Agency. As regards the issue of full protection of all the minor ports, as I said earlier, there is no doubt that the new structure is enabling us to have much greater coverage. In that sense, therefore, we are much more secure. We do not, however, have full cover of all our minor ports. A lot of this is intelligence-based and making maximum utility of what is a far more flexible force because of the measures we have in this Bill. I hope on that basis the noble Baroness will agree to withdraw her amendment.