UK Border Agency unable to fulfil its basic functions, MPs warn

The UK Border Agency risks raising suspicions it is trying to mislead the public, according to the MPs. Photograph: Steve Parsons

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) must rid itself of its "bunker mentality" or risk raising suspicions that it is trying to mislead parliament and the public, MPs have warned.

The Commons home affairs select committee criticised the agency for providing data it said was so unclear even the agency's own chief executive, Rob Whiteman, had difficulty in following it.

"It is difficult to see how senior management and ministers can be confident that they know what is going on if the agency cannot be precise in the information it provides to this committee," the report said.

It added that the agency was failing to fulfil its basic tasks, and risked damaging public trust in the government.

"The agency must rid itself of its bunker mentality and focus on ensuring that parliament and the public understands its work," MPs said.

"Confusion over figures only risks suspicion that the agency is attempting to mislead parliament and the public over its performance and effectiveness.

"The only way the Home Office can allay and remove these fears is to clean up and clarify all the figures that are used in these reports."

Dame Helen Ghosh, the permanent secretary to the Home Office, should also set out how she "intends to clean up the use of statistics within the department", the committee said, adding that the agency was, in fact, "an integral part of the Home Office".

The wide-ranging report showed a fifth of foreign prisoners who finished their jail terms in 2010/11 – 1,060 criminals – had still not been deported by November last year.

But the agency was unclear over which obstacles were blocking deportation, and over the rights of more than 520 other foreign criminals who had been allowed to remain in the UK, the committee said.

It also found that six years after 1,013 foreign nationals were released from prison without being considered for deportation, only 397 have been removed or deported.

"Six years is far too long for this situation to be resolved, and these cases should have been concluded long ago," the committee said.

It called for the authorities to ensure foreign defendants have the necessary travel documentation as soon as they are sentenced so they can be deported once they have served their jail terms.

Almost 20,000 asylum cases also remained unresolved and 120,000 immigration cases were being written off because the applicants could no longer be found, it added.

Keith Vaz, the committee's chairman, said: "The reputation of the Home Office, and by extension the UK government, is being tarnished by the inability of the UK Border Agency to fulfil its basic functions.

"The foreign national prisoner issue and the asylum backlog were scandals which first broke in 2006, six years ago.

"UKBA appears unable to focus on its key task of tracking and removing illegal immigrants, overstayers or bogus students from the country."

He continued: "The so-called controlled archive, the dumping ground for cases where the UK Border Agency has lost track of the applicant, will take a further four years to clear, at the current rate of resolution. This is unacceptable."

The committee also questioned why 700,000 migrants were applying for multiple visas each year.

Its figures were based on records showing 120,841 of the 443,841 visa applications in August and September last year were from applicants who had applied previously.

The MPs questioned "whether an applicant could have legitimate reasons for applying for three or more visas" and called for the agency to assess "the implications of imposing a limit on the number of times an individual can apply for a visa".

They also criticised the agency's refusal to recognise the term "bogus colleges", and the fact that it gives advance warning of half of its college inspections. All inspections of colleges sponsoring foreign students hoping to study in the UK should be unannounced in future, the committee said.

It added that the mothballing of £9.1m Iris scanners at airports just five years after they were introduced "should not be repeated".

Any data collected on e-Gates - electronic border gates – trials should be published "to ensure it does not suffer the same costly investment in equipment which will not last", the report said.

The immigration minister, Damian Green, said: "At the same time as clearing up the mistakes of the past, we are taking the action necessary to ensure the same errors will not be allowed to happen in the future.

"We are starting the deportation process earlier and removing foreign criminals more quickly than ever.

"We are now making better asylum decisions, ensuring cases are properly tracked, improving intelligence and speeding up removals.

"This government has chosen to publish more information than ever before, information which members of the public and parliament can use to analyse our performance and hold us to account."