Border Force is ill-equipped to cope with any additional checks on EU nationals arriving in the UK after Brexit, a Commons report warns.
MPs raised concerns over the impact of a major increase in activity for the agency, claiming it is already stretched due to “inadequate resources”.
Ministers were urged to set out whether they want additional border checks on Europeans after Britain’s departure in March 2019.
In a report to be published on Wednesday, the Commons Home Affairs Committee says: “It is clear to us that Border Force does not currently have the capacity to deliver this and will struggle to put sufficient additional capacity and systems in place.”
The paper urges the Government to be “realistic” about the lack of time left to make substantial changes to border arrangements before March next year, adding: “Rushed and under-resourced changes will put border security at risk.”
Citing a warning from inspectors about “poor” coverage of minor harbours and landing places along the east coast, the report adds: “We are increasingly alarmed about the impact that inadequate resources are having on the capacity for Border Force to operate effectively.”
Last year the Home Office launched a recruitment drive to add 300 extra personnel to Border Force, which is responsible for carrying out immigration and customs controls on people and goods entering the country.
Figures show the body had 7,670 full-time staff on average in 2016-17 – down by 241 compared with the previous year.
As well as the findings on Border Force, the committee’s assessment concludes that delays to a proposed white paper on immigration have caused anxiety for EU citizens and uncertainty for businesses.
It also says it would not be feasible to establish two “smoothly functioning” registration schemes – one for existing residents and one for new arrivals after Brexit day.
Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee, said: “The Government does not seem to appreciate the immense bureaucratic challenge they are facing or how much time and resources they need to plan on Brexit.
“The Home Office will end up in a real mess next year if there isn’t enough time to sort things out.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “It is ridiculous to suggest that we are not preparing sufficiently for leaving the EU.
“It is precisely for this reason that we have already invested £60 million in 2017/18, are planning to recruit an additional 1,500 staff across the
immigration, borders and citizenship system and are well advanced in the development of a new scheme to give EU citizens currently here the right to stay after Brexit.
“We will keep staffing under review as negotiations progress, but will always ensure we have the resources and workforce we need to run an effective
system.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here