Monday Volume 611 13 June 2016 No. 11 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 13 June 2016 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2016 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1421 13 JUNE 2016 1422 want to at the border. What extra resources will places House of Commons such as Hull and other ports around the country get to help them to do the job they want to do? Monday 13 June 2016 Mrs May: We are very clear that Border Force has The House met at half-past Two o’clock sufficient resources in place to carry out its mandated duties at ports across Humberside and to mount effective operations to identify and intercept smuggled contraband PRAYERS goods and clandestine migrants. What Border Force has done is to ensure that there is a greater flexibility in [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] the workforce, so it can be managed rather better according to risk and need. Oral Answers to Questions Damian Green (Ashford) (Con): One thing that makes Border Force more effective in protecting the border in Kent is the ability to operate in Calais rather than in HOME DEPARTMENT Dover as it used to do. Does my right hon. Friend agree that anything that gave the French the temptation to The Secretary of State was asked— move our border back to Dover would serve to weaken our borders? Border Force Personnel Mrs May: My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. 1. Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab): What estimate she As not only a former Immigration Minister but a Kent has made of changes in the number of Border Force MP, he is aware of the importance of our juxtaposed personnel over the course of this Parliament. [905348] controls in France. I am very clear that those juxtaposed 4. Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab): controls are a significant benefit. They help us to secure What estimate she has made of changes in the number our border and we wish them to stay in place. of Border Force personnel over the course of this Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con): Following on Parliament. [905351] from the question put by the hon. Member for Kingston The Secretary of State for the Home Department upon Hull North (Diana Johnson), I welcome the greater (Mrs Theresa May): I recognise that there is an urgent flexibility in Border Force’s approach, but businesses question on the tragic circumstances of Orlando later, and residents in the Humber region are extremely but I am sure that the thoughts and prayers of the concerned, following the report recently issued by the whole House are with the victims of this appalling National Crime Agency. I recently met the Immigration terrorist attack and their families. Minister, who provided some reassurance, but can the Home Secretary give an absolute assurance that additional Over the course of the financial year, the number of resources will be put into Humber ports, if required? full-time equivalent staff in Border Force is expected to remain flat. Budgets have not been finalised beyond the Mrs May: My hon. Friend makes an important point current financial year, so I am unable to provide an and I hope I can reassure him. We have announced that estimate of staffing levels for subsequent years. Border Force will be provided with £31 million over the Mr Spellar: I thank the Home Secretary for that reply next four years to deploy more staff to undertake and I endorse her sentiments about the appalling events counter-smuggling work at ports across the country. in Orlando. This will lead to the deployment of more Border Force staff at maritime ports, including those on Humberside. What impression of the UK does the right hon. Lady feel people get at our airports when faced with huge Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab): I congratulate the immigration queues, yet vast numbers of immigration Home Secretary on passing another milestone and officers’ desks are unoccupied? Does the Home Office becoming the third longest-serving Home Secretary in not know what is going on, or does it not care? What is history. The number three is very important, because it she going to do about it? is the number of Border Force vessels available to patrol Mrs May: I am pleased to say that we have made a 7,223 miles of coastland, whereas the Italians have 600. significant difference over recent years in how Border Will she look further at the need to provide more Force manages its workforce. When we came into power, resources? I know she has talked about the £31 million, we discovered that under the last Labour Government, but at this moment criminal gangs are targeting the the workforce schedules did not match the peak English channel and going into small ports with their requirements of people arriving at the airports. We have cargo. May we have action much sooner than in the few changed that, and we have significantly increased the years that she mentioned? number of e-gates, which means that people do not Mrs May: I suspect that the right hon. Gentleman have to go through the individually manned desks because may very well be the longest-serving Chairman of the they can go through the e-gates instead. Home Affairs Committee. I apologise for not having Diana Johnson: Ports such as Hull are being targeted looked in the record books yet, but perhaps that fact by traffickers and illegal immigrants, as was shown in can enter them now. February when 18 illegal immigrants were found on the In comparing the number of Italian vessels with the dockside in Hull. Many staff have contacted me to say number of Border Force vessels, the right hon. Gentleman that, as a result of the cuts, they are worried because is not comparing like with like. In Border Force, we they are unable to provide the level of service that they have given consideration to the suitability of vessels and 1423 Oral Answers13 JUNE 2016 Oral Answers 1424 what vessels are required, which is why there will be the camps to provide appropriate advice. What is of key some changes. In the strategic defence and security importance, however, is getting those young people into review that was published last November it was announced the French asylum system. that we would seek to ensure that all maritime assets could be deployed most effectively in dealing with risks Keir Starmer (Holborn and St Pancras) (Lab): On and threats of this kind. behalf of Labour Members, may I echo the Home Secretary’s comments about Orlando? Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): Research published this week by UNICEF shows Will the Home Secretary publish the internal review by that children in refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk the National Crime Agency which highlighted the are experiencing violence, sexual exploitation and abuse weaknesses in patrols at our small ports and marinas? on a daily basis. Clearly, for those who are entitled to be My constituency contains the closest channel port to reunified with their families, speed is of the essence, but London. Will the Home Secretary now, as a matter of UNICEF estimates that, at the current rate, it could urgency, tell the House what she will do to reconfigure take up to a year to process the children who are already the way in which Border Force patrols beaches and in Calais and Dunkirk and who have a legal right to be inlets, particularly those in the south-east of England, reunited with their relations in the United Kingdom. which are now very vulnerable to people traffickers What steps are the Government taking to address that, coming here directly from the continent? and can the Minister tell me how many Home Office staff are currently based in France and working to Mrs May: It is important to bear in mind that dealing speed up the process? with the potential threat of people trying to enter the United Kingdom clandestinely through smaller ports is James Brokenshire: I entirely agree with the hon. and not just about physical policing of the coastline, but learned Gentleman about the need to ensure that those about understanding intelligence, and, in particular, cases are processed as quickly as possible. The most about the work that is being done to counter organised effective way to do that is to provide teams that link up criminal gangs. The National Crime Agency has set up with the best expertise on both sides of the channel, and an organised immigration crime taskforce, which is that is exactly what we have done with the French working not just here in the United Kingdom but with authorities. The process will not take as long as he its French counterparts and elsewhere on the continent suggested. We are seeing cases being processed in a to ensure that we can stop those movements before they matter of weeks, which is precisely what we want. reach our shores. Migrants: Illegal Working Calais and Dunkirk Camps 3. Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con): What steps she is taking to ensure that illegal migrants 2. Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP): What discussions cannot profit from working in the UK. [905350] she has had with charities and non-governmental organisations on conditions in the camps at Calais and The Minister for Immigration (James Brokenshire): Dunkirk. [905349] The Government are committed to tackling illegal working. The Immigration Act 2016 makes illegal working a The Minister for Immigration (James Brokenshire): criminal offence in its own right, which ensures that While the management of the camps is a matter for the wages paid to illegal migrants can be seized as the French Government, there is close engagement between proceeds of crime, and assets may be confiscated on the United Kingdom and France on all matters relating conviction.