Author : Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780102986136
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (861 download)
Book Synopsis National Audit Office:The Border Force: Securing the Bordr: Home Office - HC 540 by : Great Britain: National Audit Office
Download or read book National Audit Office:The Border Force: Securing the Bordr: Home Office - HC 540 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-09-04 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the UK Border Force was separated from the UK Border Agency, it has met some important objectives such as reducing queuing times. To provide value for money, however, it needs to perform effectively and in a sustained way across the full range of its activities. Border Force officers reported that staff shortages and the requirement to prioritize full passenger checks while managing queue times often prevented their performing other important duties, such as checking freight. In addition, during the first months of 2012-13, the Border Force's performance in some of its activities, such as seizures of cigarettes and counterfeit goods, entry refusals and detecting forgeries, was below target. The Home Office's internal auditors confirmed that the 2012 Olympics and wider resourcing issues had an effect on the Border Force's ability consistently to resource customs controls. The Border Force's workforce lacks organizational identity. The Border Force consists largely of officers who previously worked in separate customs and immigrations agencies, who typically still identify themselves as 'ex-customs' or 'ex-immigration'. To meet the demands the Border Force is recruiting more staff. Despite this, there are continuing staff shortages at the border. The Border Force has not established whether it has the resources it needs to deliver all its objectives. It needs to deploy staff flexibly to respond to its competing demands, but is prevented from doing this as efficiently as possible because almost a fifth of its workforce is employed under terms and conditions that restrict working hours to fixed periods during the week