Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

We turn now to a very important post that has been brought into this part of government regulation: the Director of Border Revenue. This person is to be designated by the Secretary of State to exercise the functions of border revenue and to be able to carry out general customs functions as well. This position is effectively the top of the tree, after the Secretary of State. The director will have an enormous amount of power and influence and an enormous amount to do. Yet the Bill provides that the Secretary of State will designate this person. So the Secretary of State says to an official, or somebody he or she likes in the department, ““You are going to be the Director of Border Revenue””. What other highly paid position of Government is chosen by the finger or the hand falling on the shoulder? For sure, that is what this is. It was made very clear at Second Reading when I asked who this person will be. The Minister said that the hand had of course already fallen and it was going to be the chief executive of the UK Border Agency. If it is intended that the Director of Border Revenue should always be the chief executive of the UK Border Agency, we should say so and we should not pretend that it is another official. It is not another official; the chief executive of the UK Border Agency will also be known as the Director of Border Revenue. I find it absolutely inconceivable that a position such as this should not be open to competition and that it should not at least be put out to competition within the department. There will be no choice other than that of the Secretary of State. The Minister may say to me, ““But of course it won’t happen like that. There will be a proper process and proper consultation. Someone will spend a huge sum of money on head-hunters and we will go all the way through the normal processes that cost everyone a lot of money but at least are transparent””. The whole question of who is to be the Director of Border Revenue is only transparent at the moment because I asked about it at Second Reading; otherwise, at this stage of the Bill we would not know who it was going to be. However, we do. We have a very clear idea of the process but I think that the Minister needs to explain to us why that is the process for this post. Presumably, the next chief executive of the UK Border Agency will not just have a hand fall on their shoulder when the current one leaves. That post, I hope, will also be a matter for open competition. Therefore, when subsequently—a very long time down the line, I am sure—the post of chief executive of the UK Border Agency is to be filled, the post will be advertised not only as the chief executive of the UK Border Agency but as the Director of Border Revenue. I await the Minister’s reply with great interest because I find this an extraordinary way to deal with a very senior position in the organisation. I beg to move.