Clause 73
Policing and Crime Bill
7:00 pm
Vernon Coaker (Minister of State (Policing, Crime & Security), Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
Thank you, Sir Nicholas. Before I address the specifics of the clause, I will give the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds some of the information on the e-Borders programme that he requested and that he and other Committee members might find useful. So far, the £1.2 billion e-Borders system has screened more than 78 million passengers travelling to and from the UK, leading to more than 2,700 arrests, including those of murderers, drug dealers and sex offenders. Other interventions have resulted in the seizure of improperly used British passports, the confiscation of drugs and the refusal of leave to enter to a substantial number of foreign nationals. E-Borders will screen against watch lists 60 per cent. of all passenger and crew movements in and out of the UK by December 2009, rising to 95 per cent. by December 2010 and 100 per cent. by March 2014. That answers the hon. Gentleman’s specific question about the progress of the e-Borders programme, and I hope that that is of help to him and the Committee.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his support for what I think is a reasonable change to the powers that customs officers have. Clause 73 supplements the existing customs powers available to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency in relation to people arriving in the UK, which, broadly speaking, are currently limited to questioning travellers about their goods and baggage. Customs checks are no longer random, but risk-based and intelligence-led. Customs officers and UKBA officers need first to establish whether the person in front of them is the person they are looking for or, if they are at a busy airport, whether they have arrived on a high-risk flight that they are targeting. For that purpose, the clause gives customs officers powers to require the people to produce identity and travel documents and ask questions of passengers about their journey. That will enable officers to decide whether to proceed with further checks, such as examination of baggage.
I think that that important alignment of powers between Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs officers and those of the UK Border Agency will make a significant difference, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for his support. This is one of those measures that, on reading it, I asked, “Can’t they do this already?” It is a sensible measure, and I am glad that the hon. Gentleman supports it.