Failings at every level of Border Force allowed high risk flights to land in Britain, a scathing report has concluded.
David Neal, who was sacked as the chief inspector of borders, warned the number of private and charter flights being met by staff at London City Airport was “shocking”, adding “something is clearly very wrong”.
But Border Force Director General Phil Douglas dismissed the findings, insisting “I am confident that all required border
David Neal, in a scathing summary of his report, stated: “It highlights failings at a local, regional, and national level in Border Force’s response to general aviation (GA).
“This needs to be addressed by the Home Office as a matter of urgency. Guidance designed to keep the country safe directs that all GA flights identified as high risk are met by Border Force staff, except in exceptional circumstances. At London City [LCY], only [redacted] were met in 2023.
“Guidance also directs that a third of low-risk flights are met.
“Only [redacted] were met at LCY in 2023. This is shocking and something is clearly very wrong.
“Local managers told inspectors that they approached GA operations on a ‘resource to risk’ basis given the other priorities they have to resource under the Border Force Operating Mandate.
“They were satisfied that their operational response was adequate.
“By any measure this is not acceptable. This is compounded by the observation that nobody in the chain of command for LCY appeared to be taking action, even though they were aware that this was taking place.”
But much of the key information from the inspection – including how many general aviation flights had been physically met by Border Force staff – was redacted when it was published by the Home Office on Tuesday.
A Home Office spokesman said some information had been removed for “national security reasons”.
Mr Neal’s report added :“Inspectors identified two instances in which prior intelligence resulted in a high-risk rating, which should have triggered the flight being met by Border Force. In both instances, the flights were remote cleared.
“In one case, the rationale for remote clearance of the flight was not recorded on GAIT and in the other, the rationale was recorded as “inadequate staffing to attend.”
Independent inspectors who visited London City Airport on January 31 and February 1 also observed “a lack of formal training for Border Force staff”.
Border Force Director General Phil Douglas said: “Border Force will never compromise on border security and perform robust security checks on those arriving into the UK, including both scheduled and notified general aviation flights.
“As I previously explained to Mr Neal, some of the information in this report is factually inaccurate. I am confident that all required border security checks at London City Airport were carried out.”
The Home Office believes many of the high-risk flights were incorrectly categorised and should have been deemed low risk.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP said: “These inspection reports are scandalous. They expose a Conservative government which has lost control of our borders and our border security.
“From allowing high security risk flights to swan into the country with zero in-person checks, despite risks from drugs, guns and people smuggling, through to rampant labour exploitation in the social care visa.
“Even now ministers are hiding the true scale of the flaws, redacting much of the vital information, and slipping the reports out when Parliament can’t respond.
“The public have a right to get answers. We need to know how many high-risk flights arriving at City airport were not checked in person as they should have been. People deserve to know their borders are secure and safe.
