Theresa May has announced that the UK Border Agency is to be abolished. In an unscheduled statement to the House of Commons, she described UKBA as ‘a troubled organisation’ with a ‘closed, secretive and defensive culture’. She said that the agency’s size, lack of transparency, IT systems, policy remit and legal framework ensured that its ‘performance was not good enough’.
May declared that the agency will be split in two. One arm will deal with immigration and visa services, while the other tackles enforcement. May will also bring both arms back directly under the control of ministers, reversing the arms-length policy established by Labour in 2008. May also called for an IT upgrade, which will, it is hoped, help the agencies to keep track of immigration cases, some 312,726 of which are lost.
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She first pursued this divide and rule approach when she split the UK Border Force from UKBA in the aftermath of the Brody Clark affair.
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