Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of recent reductions in the number of staff in Border Force on its ability to carry out operations to tackle illegal workers and people trafficking in the UK.

We have always been clear that Border Force has the resources it needs to secure the border.

Border Force staffing figures are published in the Home Office Annual Report. This information can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018

Border Force also recently launched a nationwide recruitment campaign for officers across many of its ports and airport locations campaign to develop a recruitment pipeline of up to 1,000 officers, which will support Border Force to respond flexibly to any emerging requirements including backfilling promptly against BAU attrition.

This is in addition to the recruitment of a further 300 frontline officers to allow existing staff to be trained in new requirements ahead of EU Exit

This campaign will develop a pipeline for ongoing recruitment across various port locations as part of Border Force’s multi-year workforce plan.

All frontline officers undertake training in keeping children safe, Section 55 safeguarding responsibilities, trafficking indicators, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), FGM and Modern Slavery.

Border Force also has a network of specially trained Safeguarding and Modern Slavery officers who receive a minimum of 3 days specialist training.
BF internal performance data shows a consistent increase in identification of potential victims of Modern Slavery year on year. This is attributable to a mixture of training and raised awareness levels due to periods of intensification with other law enforcement partners to target exploitation.