Border Checks Summer 2011

Part of Opposition Day — [Un-allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 2:44 pm on 9 November 2011.

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Photo of Jack Straw Jack Straw Labour, Blackburn 2:44, 9 November 2011

As was pointed out by my right hon. Friend Alan Johnson, the problems involving asylum backlogs date back until at least the early 1990s, when the Berlin wall came down. I do not think that we are assisted by the trading of histories—what matters is today—but if the hon. Gentleman wants to do that, let me add that a computer system introduced by Lord Howard, which we were promised would become operational in November 1998, failed to operate at all. That was the mother and father of the backlog then, and it still is.