Heads Must Roll at Home Office and UK Borders 'Agency'
Posted on | Saturday, 14 April 2012 | No Comments
MPs have called on the Home Office to take direct responsibility for a dysfunctional UK Border 'Agency'.
But with no competent, trustworthy Home Secretary at the helm, and an evasive Permanent Secretary, what hope is there?
Until that Robespierre moment, when Home Secretary Theresa May, Minister of Immigration Damian Green, and UKBA Chief Executive Rob Whiteman plus other incompetents are removed from office, our sovereign shores will remain poorly policed.
In the latest report from the Home Affairs Committee, Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Committee, said:
But with no competent, trustworthy Home Secretary at the helm, and an evasive Permanent Secretary, what hope is there?
Until that Robespierre moment, when Home Secretary Theresa May, Minister of Immigration Damian Green, and UKBA Chief Executive Rob Whiteman plus other incompetents are removed from office, our sovereign shores will remain poorly policed.
In the latest report from the Home Affairs Committee, Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Committee, said:
"The reputation of the Home Office, and by extension, the UK Government, is being tarnished by the inability of the UK Border Agency to fulfil its basic functions.
The Foreign National Prisoner issue and the Asylum backlog were scandals which first broke in 2006, 6 years ago. UKBA appears unable to focus on its key task of tracking and removing illegal immigrants, overstayers or bogus students from the country.The so-called 'controlled archive', the dumping ground for cases where the UK Border Agency has lost track of the applicant, will take a further 4 years to clear at the current rate of resolution. This is unacceptable.
Following the Border Controls saga we now have two agencies instead of one. We are hopeful that the UKBA will now concentrate fully on the issues that are causing so much concern to the public and to Parliament."
(Note: the “Agency” has an archive of 119,000 lost applicants and 17,000 live cases}.What hope of this happening when we have evidence of Home Secretary Theresa May refusing to provide data to the Committee and now the CEO Rob Whiteman dishonouring his commitment to transparency – Section 79 of the report stating:
79. When Mr Whiteman first appeared before this Committee on 15 November 2011, he told us that, ‘ I think this Committee has an important role in holding me to account and also in my being transparent about the good things and the bad things that happen ... I very much want to work on the basis of trust with this Committee’.It is therefore deeply disappointing that on two occasions since our last report, the Committee has been denied access to information (by Mr Whiteman).It isn’t sufficient that the Home Affairs Committee, as an overseer and scrutiniser simply ‘requests’ – it must have the authority to ‘instruct’, i.e., demand action that includes removal of incompetent personnel in the national interest.
Home Secretary Theresa May Slithers Free Again from Dismissal and National Disgrace
Posted on | Monday, 9 April 2012 | No Comments
Earlier this year the Home Affairs Committee demonstrated just how powerless it is when it comes to challenging Ministerial incompetence. Theresa May's stumbling, error prone performance and cover ups should have resulted in dismissal or at least an assisted resignation, but the lacklustre cub scout David Cameron could not accept the shame of yet another Minister being ejected from his sham cabinet.
In November 2011, I covered the 'Inquiry into the Provision of UK Border Controls'. During the course of the Committee hearing, Madam May was 'requested' - note, not 'required' - to submit key documents to the enquiry. One suspects this correspondence would include incriminating evidence implicating her in a monumental botch-up. She forthrightly refused to reveal the evidence, and has since ignored reminders to do so, saying they were available to an 'internal inquiry' only. So much for transparency and accountability in Government at the highest level. It's a disgrace isn't it?
Here is an extract from the Inquiry's Conclusions and recommendations so you can see for yourself how ineffective we have been in bringing Theresa May to account for her actions.
'We recommend that the Home Secretary deposit copies of all the documents that have been made available to the three internal investigations in the Library of this House. This will allow this Committee to reach an informed conclusion of our own and would be consistent with the Government’s commitment to transparency and accountability. (Paragraph 27)'
How can we have any trust in Government when those appointed to high office abuse power to protect their own position in this way? And where is the media scrutiny of this abuse? Unless the media and all of us who stand up for a corrupt free administration pursue cases like this with relentless purpose and commitment, we will slide into an abyss of '1984' proportions.
As a postscript, Madam May has yet again stumbled into another controversy concerning, on this occasion, the case of Theresa May Humiliated by Judge; the Upper Immigration Tribunal judge stating that she, 'acted under a misapprehension of the facts'. Nothing new there!
The Avenging Axe of Honesty and Integrity Hangs over May, Green, Ghosh and Whiteman
Posted on | Saturday, 19 November 2011 | No Comments
Following on from the evidence given by Brodie Clark and Rob Whiteman last week, Damian Green (current Minister of Immigration) and Helen Ghosh (departing Permanent Secretary, Home Office) will appear before the Home Affairs Committee next Tuesday 22 November; the interrogation is slated to start at 12noon. We can expect oily, evasive responses from the duo. In the short time they have been allotted to squirm, they should comfortably be able to sink any future career prospects down the same bog hole that May and Whiteman have already publicly dug. We can also look forward to an earlier event due to take place on Monday. That is the deadline for Teresa May (our here today gone tomorrow) Home Secretary to respond - by noon - with 6 key documents called for by the Committee.
Here's a copy of Keith Vaz's letter to Theresa May, just so we all know what we're expecting the good lady to deliver:
UK Border Agency
I am writing to you following the Committee’s formal evidence session yesterday with Brodie Clark, the former Head of the UK Border Force and Rob Whiteman, the Chief Executive of the UKBA. The Committee would be grateful if you would provide it with the following papers which are relevant to our inquiry:
1. Any paper or papers which contain your explicit instruction to UKBA officials not to go beyond the agreed terms of the trial of risk-based processes at the border, as set out in the Interim Operational Instruction of 28 July, or otherwise set out the terms of your agreement to that trial;
2. The Operational Instruction or similar document issued in 2007, which describes the temporary changes to border arrangements which the UKBA may take in order to mitigate serious health and safety risks at a port or airport;
3. The e-mail sent by Brody Clark to Rob Whiteman at about 7 am on 3 November 2011 (which we have been told draws a distinction between the two policies described in the documents requested above);
4. Copies of the periodic updates (which we understand were weekly, in the first instance) which were sent to you on the operation of the trial between July and November;
5. A copy of the UK Border Force Operations Manual (if it is currently being updated, we would be happy to receive a copy of the last edition that was issued), or the complete URL where it can currently be found on-line; and
6. A copy of the webpages which appeared on the UKBA website before the 2010 election under the heading “Managing our border”, or the complete URL where they can currently be found on-line.
The Committee would be happy to respect any protective marking which appeared on any of the documents requested.
I understand that some of the papers requested have been or will be supplied to one or more of the three inquiries you have established to consider these events. We nonetheless believe that it is necessary for the Committee to receive copies in order for us to pursue our own inquiries.
Whilst writing, I have noted that David Wood’s interim report has in the words of the Daily Mail (16 November, page 8) “been leaked to the newspaper”. As it appears the report is ready, it would greatly assist us with our inquiry if you could provide the Committee with a copy.
Could I also remind you that the Committee is awaiting two further pieces of correspondence from you:
(a) On 7 November, you told the House following a question from Douglas Carswell MP that you would “be making information available on the issue involving Raed Salah to the Home Affairs Committee” (Official Report, col. 57). We have been waiting some time for this information and I would be grateful if you could now provide it.
(b) When you gave evidence to the Committee on 8 November, Mark Reckless MP raised a question about whether police and crime panels would have to power to trigger referendums on police precepts (QQ 62–66). You undertook to write to the Committee with fuller details of the reasons why the policy in the Act does not reflect the policy in the Coalition Agreement and the White Paper.
I would be grateful for a response by noon on Monday 21 November 2011 so that it can be circulated before the Committee’s next meeting on Tuesday 22 November 2011.
I remain most grateful to you for your assistance and continued cooperation on this matter.
The stage is set….(ed., read scaffold)
Me on Social Networks
My Twitter Feeds
