UK Border Agency to be split in two
Posted by Spartan 24 Hour Security on Thursday, June 6, 2013 Under: Homeland Security
In : Homeland Security
Tags: homeland security uk security british security border security
Staff in the UK Border Agency have been told their jobs will stay exactly
the same - despite the Home Secretary trumpeting sweeping reforms to the
under-fire service.
Moments after Theresa May announced the UKBA would be split into two and
brought back under her control, an embarrassing staff memo emerged.
It said the workforce would "still be doing the same job in the same
place with the same colleagues for the same boss" despite the reforms.
Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill wrote to staff ahead of the
Easter break to inform them of the changes.
In the note, he tells his staff: "Most of us will still be doing the
same job in the same place with the same colleagues for the same boss and with
the same mission to keep Britain's streets safe and our borders secure."
He adds: "I know that all change is unsettling and this is a
significant programme of reform.
"I am confident that the new structures and systems will strengthen
the Home Office's leadership platform, but it is just
a platform. Delivery is down to us."
It comes after May told MPs the agency responsible for an immigration
backlog the size of Iceland is to be split up.
It has previously been criticised for wrongly suspending security checks
and having up to 100,000 unopened letters.
May told the Commons the "troubled" department would come back
into her control.
She told MPs the UKBA in its current form "struggles with the volume
of its casework".
"The Agency has been a troubled organisation since it was formed in
2008 and its performance is not good enough.
"In truth the Agency was not set up to absorb the level of mass
immigration that we saw under the last Government.
"This meant the Agency has never had the space to modernise its
structures and systems and get on top of its workload."
In : Homeland Security