UK Borders Bill
4:30 pm
Richard Thomas: I know that in recent years the police have been working on the team work, and that they have a specified role; there is a job within the police for liaising with the immigration officers over roles that overlap. I am aware that the police are making that effort. However, clearly, there are only finite resources, and arresting five people on Saturday night for arriving without documents—they are easy targets—produces a vast amount of paperwork for those officers. Immigration officers have to arrive, carry out the arrest and go back to the police station and process it, which takes up their whole evening. They are not then able to focus on what may be perceived as more serious crimes—although everything is serious, of course.