Improving the effectiveness of the UK Border Agency

The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts has released its latest report on improving the effectiveness of the UK Border Agency and the Points Based System, some of the issues raised were that the UK Border Agency does not have enough control over whether sponsoring employers comply with their duties and does not appear to know where the main risks lie.

Also that the UK Border Agency does not check regularly through visits to ensure proper compliance with the rules by employers.

Until October 2010, the Agency was unable to say how many employers had been visited or the outcomes of these visits. This has undermined its ability to develop a sufficiently robust risk-based approach to monitoring employers. The Agency should improve its ability to assess and address the risk of employers failing to comply with immigration rules by developing better systems and placing greater priority on compliance. It should also review its system of incentives and penalties to encourage better compliance, and consider what incentives it could offer to employers to guarantee their employees’ adherence to immigration rules, in particular leaving the country when the visa has expired.

A further point made was that multi-national organisations are able to send workers from outside the European Economic Area to UK branches through the Intra-Company Transfer route, there is a concerned that the UK Border Agency does not have enough control over this route.

Up to September 2010, employers have brought in 42,000 IT workers using this route at a time when UK residents with IT skills cannot find work. Unlike other work routes, there is no limit on the number of workers able to use the route. The Department believes that the interests of resident workers are protected through a minimum salary requirement.

Since April 2011, this route is available only to workers earning a minimum of £24,000 a year to remain in the UK for 12 months and to workers earning over £40,000 a year to remain in the UK for up to five years. However, employers are able to pay up to 40% of the salary as allowances, which are more difficult to verify. The Agency must ensure that it can verify all salaries accurately and should consider excluding allowances from salaries. Furthermore, the  Committee for Public Accounts  expects the Home Office to monitor this scheme and whether controls are operating adequately, to provide the assurance that it does protect the interests of resident workers.

There was also criticism that the UK Border Agency Visiting Officers have not be as productive as they should be, the UK Border Agency Visiting Officers carried out on average just 4.5 employer visits per month compared to the 16 visits the Agency calculates should be possible.

Speaking  with a Visiting Officer from the UK Borders Agency recently, I was made aware of a National Task Force meeting.

Expect the UK Borders Agency to raise their game, we anticipate over the coming months a noticeable increase in UK Border Agency visits up and down the country