Border Force

I hear Opposition Members shouting out about where the Home Secretary is. I know that the shadow ...

Where’s the Home Secretary?

It is no good Members complaining. They ought to remember that this Government inherited from Lab...

That was a very complacent response from the Minister, with no explanation of where the Home Secr...

First, the right hon. Lady is not right to say that checks were suspended. That is not what the r...

I would like to thank the Minister for a very visible improvement in the performance of the Borde...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. I know from a conversation we had that he has seen the wor...

Ministers were right to respond to public concern and the recommendations of the Home Affairs Sel...

I welcome the remarks of the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee. He raised three quest...

Does not the report demonstrate that endless headline-grabbing reorganisations and legislation—wi...

I agree with my hon. Friend and Gloucestershire near-neighbour. It was clear from the chief inspe...

Will the Minister confirm that he and the Home Secretary have been receiving monthly reports abou...

As the report says, there was a period when there was a real problem with queues and the Home Sec...

That is not what it says.

If the right hon. Lady looks at the NAO’s report, which it compiled specifically on this issue fo...

The key question must be whether Border Force has the capacity to carry out both the customs chec...

I thank my hon. Friend—who is also a member of the Home Affairs Committee—for her question. As I ...

If everything is fine, why is the National Audit Office so critical of so many aspects, including...

I think I explained that in my response. I am the Immigration Minister, I am responsible for thes...

Order. Let the point be made from the Chair that the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), who ...

I am very pleased, on this occasion, to agree 100% with that sentiment, Mr. Speaker. I think I sp...

Should not the Border Force, like any organisation that has to deal with pronounced peaks in cust...

My hon. Friend has made a sensible point about intelligence. Obviously, as I said in my response,...

The Minister has laid much stress on the quality of border checks. As he will know, at the end of...

The operating mandate specifies that everyone who crosses the border must have his or her passpor...

UK Border Force did an excellent job during the Olympics, welcoming millions of new visitors. We ...

First, as my hon. Friend knows, one of our obligations as members of the European Union is to dea...

There may well be an argument for some staff flexibility, but can the Minister positively assure ...

I can assure the hon. Gentleman of that. I make it very clear on my visits, as does the director-...

Is my hon. Friend aware that the Border Force team in Tilbury, in my constituency, have been repo...

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s comment. I had the great pleasure of visiting Tilbury with her...

Is the substance of what is reported in the national newspapers accurate or inaccurate, and what ...

Having gone through the report very carefully, I think that it is probably fair to say that not a...

My hon. Friend said that last year Border Force detained some 6,000 people at Calais trying to en...

My hon. Friend asks a two-part question. The first part was whether everyone trying to enter the ...

Did I hear the Minister right when he said we are doing less well on illegal cigarettes? That is ...

We do a very good in intercepting hundreds of millions of illegal cigarettes every year, bur I wa...

I congratulate the Minister because it is clear that the Department under his leadership has been...

Under his leadership?

Under his leadership on the immigration issue, the Department has done extremely well to improve ...

I agree with my hon. Friend, and let me say two things. On the cigarette point, despite the fact ...

The NAO report and the Minister’s answers today have made it clear that freight checks were adver...

I do not think I acknowledged that at all. In terms of the figures that I set out for Calais, 6,0...

Does my hon. Friend share my constituents’ anger about the last Labour Government’s record on imm...

My right hon. Friend is right; that is certainly the view that I get, too. There is one thing tha...

Will the Minister assure me he will not bring these xenophobic “go home” hate vans to Scotland, a...

I do not think the hon. Gentleman reflects the views of the public in the way that he characteris...

I represent the port of Heysham, where we have had success in stopping tobacco smuggling. Does my...

Order. I have no plans to do so, I must say, and I am not aware of any tenure of mine, but the Mi...

Mr Speaker, you are, of course, always welcome to visit any of our ports if you want to do so. I ...

The Minister’s public-spirited generosity is truly boundless.

What checks have been made on individuals with serious criminal records from eastern Europe enter...

Checks are made, but to some extent we are dependent on what other countries tell us. The hon. Ge...

May I draw my hon. Friend’s attention to what the NAO had to say about the improvements that Bord...

I am pleased to agree with my hon. Friend’s sentiments. He might be interested to know that, as a...

A week after the Home Office’s racist “go home” vans had been touring English cities, I visited t...

I simply do not agree with the hon. Gentleman and, if the polling is to be believed, neither do t...

Massive net immigration, 450,000 asylum seekers in a backlog, no transitional controls and the Hu...

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s comments. As I have said, it is a bit rich listening to the La...

Cigarette smuggling through the airports in Northern Ireland is excessive; there is also some ind...

Obviously, we look at the intelligence available to us, particularly on freight. I am well aware ...

The London Gateway port is opening this autumn, so my constituents will welcome the improvements ...

I agree with my hon. Friend. I have looked at some of the plans for the London Gateway, which is ...

My constituents, many of whom work at the controls in Dover and Calais, think that the Government...

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s comments. Again, I had the pleasure of visiting the port in hi...