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Government Response To House Of Commons Communities And Local Government Committees Sixth Report Of Session 2013 14
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Author :Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government Publisher : ISBN 13 :9781474102599 Total Pages :17 pages Book Rating :4.1/5 (25 download)
Book Synopsis Government Response to House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee's Sixth Report of Session 2013-14 by : Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government
Download or read book Government Response to House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee's Sixth Report of Session 2013-14 written by Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Author :Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government Publisher : ISBN 13 :9781474102605 Total Pages :17 pages Book Rating :4.1/5 (26 download)
Book Synopsis Government Response to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee's Sixth Report of Session 2013-14 by : Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government
Download or read book Government Response to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee's Sixth Report of Session 2013-14 written by Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215061768 Total Pages :100 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (617 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: The Work Of The Regulation Committee Of The Homes And Communities Agengy - HC 130 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: The Work Of The Regulation Committee Of The Homes And Communities Agengy - HC 130 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-09-11 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite acknowledging that a 'handful' of providers give him concern, the Regulator is reluctant to give them lower financial viability ratings, fearing that doing so might trigger an upward re-pricing of their debt. Instead, the Regulator uses governance ratings to signal concerns about financial viability. This practice lacks openness and should stop and accurate financial viability ratings should be published. The fear of triggering a re-pricing also prevents the Regulator from using many of his statutory powers, preferring to adopt informal approaches instead. This lacks transparency and risks too close a relationship developing between the Regulator and providers. The devolved administrations' housing regulators, not to mention regulators in other sectors, must encounter similar dilemmas. The Regulator should work with them to see how they have addressed his concern that the use of statutory powers could prove counter-productive. The Committee's concerns are underlined by the case of Cosmopolitan Housing Group, which came close to insolvency in 2012. The Regulator only lowered its financial viability rating for Cosmopolitan in December 2012, despite the fact that he had been monitoring the situation for months and the possibility of insolvency had been raised in the media two months previously. The report also raises concerns about how effectively the Regulator is discharging his remit for consumer regulation. Noting that of 111 complaints related to consumer standards referred to the Regulator no case of serious consumer detriment was found, the Report calls for an annual external check to be carried out to provide assurance that the Regulator is discharging his duties effectively
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215062741 Total Pages :102 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (627 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Greater London Authority Act 2007 and the London Assembly - HC 213 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Greater London Authority Act 2007 and the London Assembly - HC 213 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Assembly's main job is to hold the Mayor to account. But he can appoint Assembly Members to his cabinet while they continue to sit in the Assembly. The Report asks how the public are supposed to disentangle a situation in which an Assembly Member can hold the executive to account in one area while working on behalf of the executive in another. As a further example of inconsistency, the Report questions why Assembly Members can sit on some GLA London-wide executive bodies but not others. For example, eight Assembly Members can sit on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority but no Assembly Member is entitled to join the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime. The Mayor must be held to account for the substantial powers invested in him and the London Assembly is the right vehicle to do this, but not in its current form. The Report recommends that the Assembly should be given the power to: call in mayoral decisions; amend the Mayor's capital budgets as it can his revenue budgets; reject the Mayor's Police and Crime Plan on the same basis as it can other mayoral strategies; review and, if necessary, reject the Mayor's appointment of any Deputy Mayor. In addition Assembly members who join the Mayor's cabinet or sit on GLA boards should be required to give up their Assembly membership and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority should be reconstituted along the lines of the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215062833 Total Pages :168 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (628 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: Community Budgets - HC 163 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: Community Budgets - HC 163 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community Budgets are demonstrating their potential to deliver cheaper, more integrated and more effective public services. They are at risk, however, of being replaced after a few years if key issues are not resolved. If this opportunity is missed, the Committee warns that local services could come under unsustainable pressure in the face of increased demand and reduced budgets. This in turn may result in more spending later on judicial and emergency health and welfare interventions. The Government should send a clear message that it will assist every local authority wishing to introduce Community Budgets and to set out the specific assistance it will provide them with. Furthermore, the programme of pilots must not be allowed to slow progress towards wider implementation. If they are to succeed, public service providers and local authorities must realise investment in Community Budgets will bring them benefits. Local authorities, their partners, and central government should, therefore, develop a framework for agreements on how the benefits of investment are to be shared. On the Troubled Families Programme, the Committee is supportive of the work being done but highlights the need for greater focus on how work with these families will continue after the programme ends in 2016. Noting that the resources available have not increased in proportion to the number of families added to the programme in June, DCLG needs to monitor carefully progress and provide more resources to local authorities if necessary
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215069351 Total Pages :44 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (693 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: Building Regulations Certification of Domestic Electrical Work - HC 906 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee: Building Regulations Certification of Domestic Electrical Work - HC 906 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Communities and Local Government Committee note that the quality of domestic electrical work has improved since some of it was brought within building control eight years ago. But much more needs to be done to protect people in their homes. The main mechanism for checking electrical work covered by Part P of the building regulations is satisfactory is certification by a qualified supervisor operating under a Government-approved competent persons scheme. As long as the qualified supervisor meets competence standards, the person carrying out the work does not necessarily have to be a qualified electrician. The report calls for competence requirements to be rolled out within five years for all those actually doing electrical work to which Part P applies. In the interim, it is recommended that there be a limit on the number of notifications that a single qualified supervisor can authorise in a year in order to ensure that they devote enough time to checking each job. The Government should aim to double public awareness of Part P within two years and aim for an awareness level similar to that of Gas Safe within five years (45%). Additionally, the report calls for more proactive enforcement against those who breach Part P.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215084535 Total Pages :69 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 821 - The Work Of The Communitites And Local Government Committee Since 2010 by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 821 - The Work Of The Communitites And Local Government Committee Since 2010 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015-03-25 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of the report is to distil experience from this parliament and to assist the new committee in the next parliament. It considers how the Committee approached its work, the way it has used research and how this might be strengthened, and its own assessment of performance against the core tasks set by the Liaison Committee. It then suggests some matters the new committee might consider examining in the next Parliament. These include both 'unfinished business', topics the Committee looked at over the Parliament to which the successors might wish to return, and new developments, which the Committee considers will emerge as major issues over the next five years.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215084276 Total Pages :25 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 964 - Private Rented Sector: The Evidence From Banning Letting Agents' Fees in Scotland by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 964 - Private Rented Sector: The Evidence From Banning Letting Agents' Fees in Scotland written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015-03-20 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report follows up one issue left from the Committee's 2013 report on the Private Rented Sector (HCP 50, session 2013-14, ISBN 9780215060730): whether or not England should follow Scotland and introduce a ban on letting agents charging fees to tenants other than rents and refundable deposits. The change in Scotland had only been made in November 2012 and when the Committee reported in July 2013 views on its impact were speculative and varied widely. The Committee therefore decided to wait two years from its introduction and seek hard evidence on the impact of the change in Scotland. The Committee sought evidence from a number of organisations representing tenants, agents and landlords in Scotland and have examined relevant published reports. The Committee concludes that the evidence available is not strong enough to reach a view on the impact of the ban on fees in Scotland. In addition, the issues around fees that were raised in the original inquiry are more broadly based than simply fees to tenants, as they affect the overall role of agents in the market and the transparency of that market. The Committee therefore call on the Department for Communities and Local Government to commission a comprehensive impact assessment of the effects of the introduction of a ban on agents' fees in England.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215084152 Total Pages :49 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 1114 - Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham: Ofsted and Further Government Issues by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 1114 - Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham: Ofsted and Further Government Issues written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report follows up our November 2014 report on child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and covers two matters: the role of Ofsted and Louise Casey's inspection report on Rotherham. It is clear that the inspection arrangements that Ofsted had in place from 2007, when it became responsible for inspecting children's services at Rotherham, failed to detect either the evidence, or the knowledge within the council, of large-scale child sexual exploitation. The structured inspection method used at that time to inspect local authorities' children's services was designed by Ofsted and did not focus on child sexual exploitation. The result was a lack of intelligence and understanding in Ofsted's handling of Rotherham. Child sexual exploitation was missed as was the superficiality of Rotherham's response to inspection findings and its dysfunction. The Committee found Louise Casey's report on her inspection of Rotherham to be penetrating and instructive. It not only confirmed the dreadful findings in the Jay Report but, what was worse, revealed that Rotherham Council was in denial about child sexual exploitation.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215081242 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 262 - Community Rights by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 262 - Community Rights written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's policy of empowering people through Community Rights to save local assets from closure, build community housing, take over local authority services and bring public land back into use has in its first two years had mixed results. The Rights - to Bid, to Build, to Challenge and to Reclaim Land - have generated some successes, with a small number of community groups being able, for example, to use the Community Right to Bid to stop valued local assets such as the local pub being sold for redevelopment. But limitations have also been exposed. The Community Right to Build is too complicated; the Community Right to Challenge, which triggers a tendering exercise to run a local service, risks damaging relations between communities and local government and is a gamble for groups wanting to run a local service as they may be outbid; and the Community Right to Reclaim Land has hardly been used. The Committee wants to see the Rights improved so that local people have more say over what happens to the land, buildings and services in their area. The Government should: enhance the Community Right to Bid by increasing from six to nine months the time people have to bid to buy a local asset; make it easier to remove or restrict the "permitted development" exemption from planning control when an asset has been listed as having Community Value; and make an asset's status as an Asset of Community Value a material consideration in all but minor planning applications.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215080904 Total Pages :32 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 877 - Pre-appointment Hearing with the Government's Preferred Candidate for the Post of Houing Ombudsman by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 877 - Pre-appointment Hearing with the Government's Preferred Candidate for the Post of Houing Ombudsman written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 16 December 2014 the Committee held a pre-appointment hearing with the Government's preferred canditate for the post of Housing Ombudsman, Denise Fowler. On the basis of the evidence provided at this hearing, the Committee concluded that she is a very suitable candidate for the post. In the Commitee view, however, to be independent of central government she cannot remain a civil servant and she should resign form the Civil Service before taking up the post. The Housing Ombudsman administers the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The purpose of the Scheme is for tenants and other individuals to have complaints about members investigated by a Housing Ombudsman. The Scheme states that the role of the Ombudsman is to resolve disputes involving members of the Scheme, including making awards of compensation or other remedies when appropriate, as well as to support effective landlord-tenent dispute resolution by others.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215080807 Total Pages :72 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 190 - Operation of the National Planning Policy Framework by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 190 - Operation of the National Planning Policy Framework written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee invited submissions on how the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has worked in practice since it came into operation in April 2012. The evidence to this inquiry has highlighted a number of emerging concerns: that the NPPF is not preventing unsustainable development in some places; that inappropriate housing is being imposed upon some communities as a result of speculative planning applications; and that town centres are being given insufficient protection against the threat of out of town development. These issues do not, however, point to the need to tear up or withdrawn the NPPF; rather they suggest a need to reinforce its provisions and ensure it does the job it was intended to do.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215084128 Total Pages :41 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis HC 607 - Litter and Fly-Tipping in England by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book HC 607 - Litter and Fly-Tipping in England written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015-03-14 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: England is a litter-ridden country compared to most of Europe, North America and Japan. Levels of litter in England have hardly improved in the past 12 years and the best estimates are that litter costs the taxpayer between £717 and £850 million a year to clear up. Change is needed. There has been a 20% increase in fast-food litter in the last year. The Government should bring forward legislation requiring all shops, restaurants and retail food outlets to keep the perimeters of their premises free from litter. Responsible businesses are already doing this. In addition, the fast-food industry should introduce 'on-pack' information on all branded take-away and fast-food packaging to remind consumers to dispose of litter responsibly. The most frequently littered items are chewing gum and smokers' materials. Chewing gum and staining are difficult and costly to remove. This was a matter of considerable concern upon which the Committee deliberated at length. Levels of fly-tipping increased by 20% in the last year. There were 852,000 reported incidents but only 2,000 convictions in the courts. The Government should introduce a fixed penalty notice for fly-tipping for household items - the bulk of the incidents - and the industry must introduce a scheme to take away unwanted household appliances and furniture when replacements are delivered. In the end it is individuals who litter and fly-tip their unwanted goods, and it is this behaviour which needs to change. The Committee support a variety of behaviour-changing activities and campaigns to prevent littering.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215063281 Total Pages :48 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (632 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Progress in Delivering the Thameslink Programme - HC 296 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Progress in Delivering the Thameslink Programme - HC 296 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first proposals to modernize the Thameslink route and increase capacity were developed by a succession of rail industry sponsors but nothing much happened until the Department for Transport became sponsor in 2005. The Department has delivered the first phase of the infrastructure project under budget and on time. The other two aspects of the programme are going less well. The procurement of new trains through a £1.6 billion PFI deal has taken over three years longer than expected. And the timetable and approach for letting the new franchise have been revised. The planned completion date has been put back to 2018. But meeting the timetable for delivering the new trains will be very demanding and risky. The Committee is also sceptical about using PFI to fund this project. It is alarming that the Department compared the PFI option against only one other private sector option and did not construct a public sector comparator to understand better the relative costs, risks and rewards of choosing a PFI funding route over a public one. Another source of worry is the small size of the Department's core Thameslink team - just five people for a programme of this size and complexity. The impression that there is a scarcity of these skills is reinforced by the apparent need to move the key civil servant leading the Thameslink team, the man whose experience, skills and continuity have been crucial to the delivery of the programme, over to the High Speed 2 team
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215065834 Total Pages :78 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (658 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: HMRC Tax Collection: Annual Report & Accounts 2012-13 - HC 666 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: HMRC Tax Collection: Annual Report & Accounts 2012-13 - HC 666 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In pursuing unpaid tax, HMRC has not clearly demonstrated that it is on the side of the majority of taxpayers who pay their taxes in full. Last year the Department collected less tax in real terms than it managed to collect in 2011-12. This was despite the stated ambition to crack down on tax avoidance. The tax gap as defined by HMRC did not shrink, but in 2011-12 grew to £35 billion. Furthermore, this figure does not include all the tax revenue lost. HMRC pursues tax owed by the smaller businesses but seems to lose its nerve when it comes to mounting prosecutions against multinational corporations. It predicted that it would collect £3.12 billion unpaid tax from UK holders of Swiss bank accounts and this figure was built into budget estimates, but in 2013-14 it has so far secured just £440 million. HMRC aims to make the UK more attractive to business but the incentives to international corporations may also enable them to avoid tax. HMRC needs to strike the right balance between support and enforcement. The implementation of the Real Time Information system has been encouraging overall though some small businesses are continuing to struggle. It is of concern that HMRC is planning from April 2014 to fine companies even though some face continuing challenges. The successful implementation of Universal Credit depends on RTI continuing to work properly but the system does not have full disaster recovery arrangements. System failures could have serious consequences for payments to individuals
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215064868 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (648 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Whole of Government Accounts 2011-12 - HC 667 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Whole of Government Accounts 2011-12 - HC 667 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Whole of Government Accounts for 2011-12 presents the combined financial activities of some 3,000 organisations. It provides vital data on which Government needs to act. Key issues have been identified, such as the £19.4 billion liability for clinical negligence claims. But it is frustrating to see other issues seemingly ignored in long-term policy making and spending decisions. In one year, the public sector was defrauded of over £20 billion and the tax gap rose to £35 billion. The financial liabilities for dealing with nuclear waste also keep growing. There is room for improvement in the document itself and how it is used. Users find it hard to understand, for example, why the Government debt and deficit highlighted in the WGA differ from those reported in the ONS's National Accounts. Also, by changing definitions in its commentary published alongside the WGA, the Treasury makes it difficult to track changes over time. The Treasury's introduction in the commentary of a new concept of so-called 'direct' expenditure leaves out key costs such as the interest paid on the National Debt. The publicly owned and controlled bodies - such as Network Rail and the taxpayer owned banks - are still being excluded, in defiance of normal accounting rules. The usefulness of the WGA is also being limited by the length of time it takes to produce the document and by poor quality data from some of the bodies. The accounts have again been qualified over the completeness, timeliness and accuracy of the information supplied for schools and academies
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215064820 Total Pages :60 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (648 download)
Book Synopsis House of Commons - Public Accounts Committee: The Border Force: Securing the Border - HC 663 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book House of Commons - Public Accounts Committee: The Border Force: Securing the Border - HC 663 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-10 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Border Force's 7,600 staff operate immigration and customs controls at 138 air, sea and rail ports across the UK. It has a budget of £604 million for 2013-14, but is facing cuts. It has had to prioritise passenger checks at the expense of its other duties thereby weakening security at the border by neglecting other duties, such as the examination of freight for illicit goods, and checks in Calais on lorries to detect concealed illegal entrants. It was not able to meet and check up to 90,000 private planes or private boats arriving in the UK each year, leaving the UK border vulnerable and raising issues about resourcing and how priorities are set. The Border Force acknowledged that it had missed 8 of its 19 seizure and detection targets. Recommendations: set out how it will ensure that it delivers its full range of duties across all ports to provide the required level of national security; demonstrate that it can deliver its workload within the resources available; must address the gaps in the data it receives on people arriving in the UK, and the existing data needs to be cleansed to increase the quality, reliability and usefulness of the intelligence generated; set out how, and by when, it will have in place the functional IT systems it needs to underpin the security of the UK border; senior management must provide the organisation with a clear sense of purpose and tackle those barriers which inhibit the flexible and effective deployment of its staff.
