Draft Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (Specified Purposes Related to Policing) Regulations 2026
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Anna Turley)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (Specified Purposes Related to Policing) Regulations 2026.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I will set out to hon. Members what this draft statutory instrument will do in broad terms before turning to the why. The regulations are made under section 36(8) of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. They specify the meaning of “purposes related to policing”.
The draft regulations enable the Secretary of State for Transport—in practice, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency acting on her behalf—to share trailer registration information with the police for use for policing purposes. Where the 2025 Act permits, the regulations also enable the onward disclosure of trailer registration information by police and Home Office recipients to a person exercising public functions for use in connection with the same policing purposes. In short, the instrument gives full effect to the information-sharing framework established by Parliament, enabling trailer registration information to be shared and used for the full range of specified policing purposes.
I now turn to the wider context in which the draft regulations sit. The overarching aim underpinning them is to strengthen the use of data in support of policing and border security. In 2018, Parliament enacted the Haulage Permits and Trailer Registration Act 2018, establishing the trailer registration scheme administered by the DVLA on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. For the avoidance of doubt, the trailer registration scheme does not collect biometric information.
Hon. Members will recall the tragic deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals who were found in a lorry in Essex in October 2019. The police faced challenges in their response, because of obstacles to identifying who the trailer belonged to. Subsequently, the 2025 Act created an information-sharing gateway for trailer registration information to be supplied to specified law enforcement bodies. The Act allows the DVLA to supply trailer registration information to the police for specified purposes related to policing, and its onward disclosure by the police and the Home Office for the same purposes. However, Parliament also required the meaning of “purposes related to policing” to be set out in regulations subject to the affirmative procedure. That requirement has brought this draft instrument before the Committee.
Before I get into the specifics, I will make two important points. First, without the draft regulations, the relevant provisions that I referred to would not be fully operable. Secondly, in practice, police use of trailer registration information would remain confined to law enforcement and national security purposes.
Let me now turn to the detail. The draft regulations define “purposes relating to policing” by reference to well-established policing functions. They specify that the purposes include: first, protecting life and property; secondly, preserving order; thirdly, preventing the commission of offences; fourthly, bringing offenders to justice; and, finally, any other police duty or responsibility arising from common or statute law. That means that trailer registration information can be used where it is operationally necessary, ensuring that the DVLA can give forces timely access when they need it to carry out their vital functions. That might, for example, be in a safeguarding context. Other potential uses include roads policing or the response to serious incidents, as well as criminal investigations.
I should clarify what the regulations do not do: they do not create new powers, nor do they expand the categories of information that may be shared. They simply define the scope within which existing statutory powers may be exercised. Clearly, the sharing and use of information must be supported by appropriate safeguards. I therefore say to the Committee that the draft regulations are limited and proportionate. They do not impose new duties on the police or the Home Office. They do not alter the wider legal framework in which they sit. Existing protections continue to apply, including under the Data Protection Act 2018, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the relevant public law principles. The Information Commissioner’s Office has been consulted and has expressed no concerns in respect of this legislative change. Taken together, the safeguards are there to ensure lawful and proportionate use of trailer registration information.
Under section 36(9) of the 2025 Act, the Home Office consulted Scottish Ministers, the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and policing bodies across the UK. Responses indicated broad agreement that the proposed definition reflects all policing functions. Where consultees suggested refinements, the Government concluded that these matters were already encompassed within the proposed definition, and that the approach aligns with the established policing codes of practice and information-handling frameworks. In Scotland, the Scottish policing principles will continue to apply and did not need to be separately referenced in the draft regulations. The draft regulations will apply across the UK, and they are expected to be implemented through existing operational and IT processes without the need for new systems or additional funding.
The draft regulations are necessary to give full effect to the trailer registration information-sharing provisions in the 2025 Act. They are designed to bring clarity and consistency to processes that, subject to appropriate safeguards, will support the police and the Home Office in their vital work. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.
Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank the Minister for those detailed opening remarks. The protection and enforcement of our laws protecting our borders must be an absolute priority for Government. Whether individuals are coming across the channel in small boats or concealed in trailers, we must do all we can to prevent and deter these dangerous journeys.
Unfortunately, the tragic consequences of people smuggling in trailers are all too clear. It is right that the people who previously committed these crimes are now in prison, but that should not prevent us from remaining vigilant and taking steps to stop such tragedies from happening again. During the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill Committee, the Government received our support for the clauses that underpin the draft regulations. Therefore, they will continue to receive our support for them today.
The specified purposes related to policing that are set out in the legislation are very sensible and will rightly enable the lawful sharing of trailer registration information held by the DVLA with policing bodies. Allowing the police and the Home Office to share that information where it is used for the same purposes is also an entirely appropriate measure. I hope the Government will utilise these powers effectively to identify and arrest anyone responsible for illegally bringing individuals into our country.
Given the time available to scrutinise the Government’s approach to border security in the ongoing Immigration and Asylum Bill Committee, which the Minister and I are enjoying session after session, I will not belabour the broader issues with this approach. However, I hope the Government will acknowledge that if we are to stop illegal migration, which should be the overall aim, we must not only seek to smash the gangs, as this legislation aims to do, but deter all forms of illegal entry.
Illegal entry to the UK is both incredibly dangerous and damaging to the British population, and we owe it to both parties to remove the incentives that encourage illegal migration. To overcome the failures that we have seen in tackling illegal migration, measures such as the draft regulations need to be accompanied by a message that anyone who comes to the UK illegally will not be allowed to remain in this country. I fear that without such changes, this well-meaning legislation, while an improvement, will prove unable to address the much broader problems.
Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for what I believe is the first time, Mrs Hobhouse. I have a message to the Whips: if they put the Chair of the relevant Select Committee on a Delegated Legislation Committee, they may find that it takes slightly longer than they were expecting—[Interruption.] I am fine for now, but the Whips might want to think about that.
I want to take the opportunity put a few questions to the Minister. First, will this measure be used purely for immigration offences? When I was invited by the Metropolitan police to join the policing operation for Notting Hill carnival, I was very struck that the majority of the offenders who were picked up by the facial recognition technology being deployed were actually wanted for sexual and domestic abuse offences.
I thought that such an event was a very good way to attract those offenders, as it is one where people are scantily clad and therefore might attract those who are more inclined that way—[Interruption.] I can see Members’ looks of shock, but that is the point the police made to me. The Notting Hill carnival is an occasion that people want to attend purely for the opportunity to offend and sexually abuse those taking part, which is absolutely wrong. The facial recognition technology was picking up sexual offenders, not drug offenders or the other things that we might think of with Notting Hill carnival. This legislation could be used beyond just immigration enforcement—for violence against women and girls and other offences—and I hope the Minister can confirm that it will be.
I am also curious to know whether “policing” will include immigration enforcement. Again, from the work we have done in the Select Committee I have been struck by the number of people who have arrived, claimed asylum and do not have the right to work but do continue to work, and immigration enforcement should be able to share information on trailers and other vehicles if people who are here without the right to work are trying to work, so that we can stop that and remove that incentive.
My final point is wider. I wonder whether the Government are looking at extending the registration scheme to boat engines, perhaps in a Europe-wide scheme. If we had a Europe-wide register of boat engines, law enforcement across the continent might have more traceability of those boats that are trying to leave northern France, Belgium and other places. I wonder whether there may be scope to further the measure.
4.41 pm
Anna Turley
I thank all Members for their thoughtful consideration of the statutory instrument. I welcome them—that is why we are here. I will start by mentioning some of the broader context, which I hope will address some of the issues raised by the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands.
The statutory instrument is in the context of our broader work to strengthen border security and tackle organised crime, which we take extremely seriously. I am grateful to Opposition Members for their engagement through the Immigration and Asylum Bill Committee. We are looking through the border security plan to target the whole criminal model, as the right hon. Lady says, from smugglers to the supply of boats, engines, international routes used, criminal finance and online advertising.
We know that by the time people get to the beaches of France, it is almost too late. We are working throughout the whole process to try to address the causes, the supply chains and the organised crimes behind this. International co-operation is central to that effort, and we are strengthening co-ordination with France and other European partners while disrupting organised criminal networks, equipment and facilitators further upstream. To reassure the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire, that effort is producing results, as he knows: small boat arrivals down by over 40%, more than 6,500 organised immigration crime disruptions and over 80,000 removals. But these gangs are highly adaptable; they change launch locations, vessels, supply routes and operating methods when pressure is applied. We are therefore ensuring the system can identify those changes quickly, assign responsibility and respond when new methods become established.
In response to the question from the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands, I can confirm that the instrument will apply to all relevant policing purposes, which include immigration enforcement operations, the issue that she mentioned of sexual offending and other policing uses. Its purpose is far broader than purely immigration. It is to support the police to have access to trailer information that, by some anomaly, they have not had access to historically.
I am grateful to colleagues for their thoughtful and constructive questions and points, and for their support for the draft regulations. They are proportionate and focused, and do not introduce new powers to collect information, nor do they create new policing functions. They provide clarity and consistency, ensuring that trailer registration information can be used in support of legitimate policing activity, subject to the safeguards and protections that Parliament has already put in place. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.