Border Force
| Border Force | |
|---|---|
Logo of the Border Force
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Racing stripe
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| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1 March, 2012 |
| Preceding agency | UK Border Agency |
| Employees | 8,000 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
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National agency (Operations jurisdiction) |
United Kingdom |
| Legal jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
| General nature | |
| Specialist jurisdiction | National border patrol, security, and integrity. |
| Operational structure | |
| Overviewed by | Independent Police Complaints Commission/Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary |
| Agency executive |
Sir Charles Montgomery, Director General |
| Parent agency | Home Office |
| Facilities | |
| Cutters |
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| Website | |
| www.gov.uk/border-force | |
Border Force is a part of the Home Office, responsible for frontline border control operations at air, sea and rail ports in the United Kingdom. The force was part of the now defunct UK Border Agency from its establishment in 2008 until Home Secretary Theresa May demerged it in March 2012 after severe criticism of the senior management.
Since 1 March 2012, Border Force has been a law-enforcement command within the Home Office, accountable directly to ministers. The work of the Border Force is monitored by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
The stated responsibilities of the Home Office's Border Force are the following:
Staff hold a mixture of powers granted to them by their status as immigration officers and designated customs officials.
Immigration officers have powers of arrest and detention conferred on them by the Immigration Act 1971, when both at ports and inland. In practice, non-arrest trained Border Force immigration officers exercise powers under Schedule 2 of the Immigration Act 1971, while inland immigration officers work under S28A-H of the Immigration Act 1971 and paragraph 17 of Schedule 2, as do arrest-trained Border Force immigration officers at the frontier.
Historically, port and inland immigration officers received different training to reflect these different approaches to immigration enforcement, which is now reinforced by inland officers working for Immigration Enforcement, a separate Home Office Command.
"Designated Immigration Officers" are Border Force immigration officers who have been designated with additional detention powers, under Sections 1 to 4 of the UK Borders Act 2007, where a person at a port or airport is suspected of being liable to arrest by a police officer for non-border offences.
Border Force officers, designated as customs officials under the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, have wide-ranging powers of entry, search, seizure and arrest. They hold the same customs and excise powers as officers of HM Revenue and Customs, but cannot use HMRC powers for non-border matters, such as Income Tax and VAT. Amongst their powers is the ability to arrest anyone who has committed, or who the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect has committed, any offence under the Customs and Excise Acts. They may also seize prohibited and restricted goods, such as controlled drugs and firearms, as well as ensuring that imported goods bear the correct taxes and duties.
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Wikipedia