UK Parliament / Open data

Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

I am in no way seeking to piggy-back on the Front Bench of either opposition party, but I have another technical question. The Minister can rule it out of order if he wishes. Twenty years ago, one problem of friction between the commissioners and the unions was that working in customs positions at ports was an attractive job and there was a desire that the posts should, if possible, be filled on the basis of Buggins’s turn. On the other hand, there were quite clearly customs officers—other than those who were good dog handlers and achieved great results with the assistance of highly intelligent spaniels—who had a peculiar knack for identifying people who were behaving in a criminal manner. Given the importance of what we are debating, will identifying people who have the knack take preference over appointing those to the office simply on the basis of Buggins’s turn, or has that already happened?

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

708 c224 

Session

2008-09

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber
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