Border protections at UK airports are neither “effective nor efficient” as ePassport gates are sometimes left unmanned, according to one of several delayed reports by sacked chief inspector David Neal.
The Home Office has published 13 papers written by the former borders and immigration inspector, who was dismissed last week after releasing information to the press about alleged airport security failings.
In one of the reports, about a reinspection of electronic passport gates, Mr Neal said roving officers were “distracted” by having to manage queues and deal with passenger queries, and that “basic stuff [is] not being done well”.
“Inspectors saw border posts left unmanned while officers signalled for attention from their managers.
“This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed urgently,” the report said.
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Inspectors observed ePassport gates at three London airports in May 2023 – Heathrow Terminal 4, Luton and Stansted.
Staff at Stansted said the amount of casework they undertook had increased by 400% since the UK’s departure from the EU.
“On the basis of this inspection, I believe the protection of the border is neither effective nor efficient,” Mr Neal wrote.
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Other reports by Mr Neal accused the Home Office of being dragged down by a “culture of defensiveness” and found that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s push to clear the legacy asylum backlog “at all costs” had led to a range of “perverse outcomes” for claimants.
One report said a perennial theme of the inspections had been “inexcusably poor data” collected by the Home Office.
Another damning report raised safeguarding concerns about the housing of unaccompanied asylum-seeker children and criticised the department for failing to provide guidance to hotels on when a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check should be renewed.
David Neal. Pic: PA
‘Border chaos’
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, accused the Home Office of “trying to hide” the information by publishing 13 reports, some 100 pages long, in one go.
The raft of reports were published just hours after damning findings from an inquiry into Sarah Everard’s killer was released, as well as a series of significant immigration statistics.
Ms Cooper said: “This is the border chaos the Tories are trying to hide.
“Ministers have sat on these devastating reports for months in a bid to hide their utter failure to protect our borders.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper
She added: “From inadequate security checks at the border to spending billions on asylum hotels and unlawfully housing child refugees in inappropriate accommodation, the Conservative government have broken our immigration system. They have tried to bury this bad news, but the public deserve the truth.
“This is a government that has lost its way and on their watch our borders are less secure, and our asylum system is falling apart.”
Downing Street downplayed suggestions the release of the reports was a deliberate attempt to bury bad news.
A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “We wanted to publish them as swiftly as possible following the necessary and appropriate due diligence.”
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The government had come under renewed pressure to release the reports following Mr Neal’s sacking.
During his tenure, he had repeatedly complained that the department was too slow to publish his reports, with 15 dating back to April 2023 still unpublished when he was dismissed.
The reports were meant to have been made public within eight weeks of being submitted.
‘Wholly inadequate’
Earlier on Thursday, the Home Affairs Committee (HAC) wrote to Home Secretary James Cleverly and described the delays as “unacceptable”. The panel of MPs also warned against a “great report dump” in order to “hide bad news”.
Following their publication, Diana Johnson, the Labour chairwoman of the HAC, said: “Not only have all these reports been published in one go, but there is no ICIBI (Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration) in post to provide a press release or a commentary on the contents of these reports.
“This is wholly inadequate and raises serious questions about what the Home Office has been doing all this time.”
Mr Neal’s exit came after he provided data to the Daily Mail which purported to show UK Border Force failed to check passengers on hundreds of private jets arriving at London City Airport.
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Mr Neal said the alleged lack of checks meant criminals, illegal immigrants, trafficking victims and extremists may have entered the UK without undergoing scrutiny by the authorities.
The government said the claims had no basis in fact and accused him of breaching the terms of his appointment in leaking the information.
A report on Mr Neal’s inspection of London City Airport this month will be published “in the established eight-week period”, the Home Office said, alongside another report on social care visas relating to the immigration system.
The Home Office said it had “delivered” on a promise to publish all overdue reports as soon as possible.
A spokesperson added: “The publication of these reports that scrutinise the activity of the Home Office and make recommendations for improvement is in and of itself a demonstration of transparency and acceptance of independent scrutiny.”