Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what qualifications or criteria are required for Border Force personnel working in (a) ports and (b) airports; and whether those qualifications or criteria applied to the recruitment of agency staff, in the last twelve months.

Border Force have recruited nationally for permanent staff at various grades in the last twelve months. The educational qualifications and other criteria required will be dependent on the grade being recruited.

However, the basic criteria for all recruitment of permanent staff into Border Force must be:

• Be a UK national; evidence of which, will be required.
• Hold a full and valid passport;
• Be at least 18 years old as you will be required to work between midnight and 4am which is not legal unless you are 18.
• Depending on location and grade have a full and valid driving license

The agency staff are temporary staff which Border Force engaged for an administrative purpose should the UK have left the EU in a no deal scenario. Their intended role was not consistent with that of a permanent Border Force Officer and the agency staff received training appropriate to the duties to be carried out.

The criteria for eligibility to apply for agency staff was the consistent with the criteria set out above for permanent recruitment, with the exception that there was no academic qualifications required due to level of responsibilities to be undertaken

All agency staff were interviewed (assessed) and selected upon suitable demonstration of the following skills:

• excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• a strong sense of personal ethics and integrity;
• they enjoy interacting with colleagues, members of the public and external stakeholders;
• the ability to build relationships and thrive working as part of a team;
• a desire to develop.