14 February 2018

UK Home Affairs Committee: Immigration system unprepared for Brexit

The Committee criticised the delays to the Immigration White Paper and warns of serious problems for immigration service delivery and border security as a result of lack of decisions, proper planning or sufficient resources, in its report into Home Office delivery of Brexit: immigration.

The Committee concludes:

• The delays to the Immigration white paper and lack of clarity over the Government’s intentions on immigration are creating anxiety for EU citizens in the UK, uncertainty for UK businesses, preventing proper planning and putting already overstretched immigration officials in an ‘impossible position’. That is unacceptable.
• With little more than a year to go, the Government is still failing to set out crucial details on the registration of current residents.
• Urgent clarity is needed over the Government’s immigration objectives for the transition period so that Parliament can debate and scrutinise the proposals before they are finalised.
• Insufficient resources have been allocated and insufficient staff are planned to be sure of a smooth registration process or to cope with additional border requirements on people or goods.
• Given the delays, lack of decisions and resources, UK Visas and Immigration will not be able to deliver two EU citizen registration schemes (one for existing residents and one for new arrivals) effectively by March 2019.
• An already overstretched Border Force does not have the capacity to deliver additional checks at the border by March 2019 – and the problems will be worse if they are expected to deliver additional customs checks as well. The Government should aim to keep customs arrangements the same in the transition period. Rushed and under-resourced changes will undermine border security.

 Full report

© House of Commons