Politics
Home Office wings it on immigration

A KEY House of Commons Select Committee’s report has savaged the Home Office’s inability to provide information about immigration.
The Public Accounts Committee says the Department’s policy is informed less by hard evidence than by anecdote.
In its report, the Committee acknowledges that immigration ‘has always been a cause of public and political debate’. However, it expresses concern that, after many years of addressing the issue the Home Office can provide little evidence to inform that debate.
Despite previous enquiries and reports into the Home Office’s handling of immigration, the Committee says: ‘[T]he Department is still not sufficiently curious about the impact of its actions and the underlying reasons for the challenges it faces’.
The report criticises the Home Office for having no idea what impact it has achieved for the £400 million spent each year by its Immigration Enforcement directorate.
It continues: ‘There are major holes in the Department’s understanding of the size and scale of illegal immigration and the extent and nature of any resulting harm. It does not understand the support people need to navigate its systems effectively and humanely, or how its actions affect them’.
HOME OFFICE POLICY NOT BASED ON EVIDENCE
The Committee flays the Department for appearing to formulate policy on “anecdote, assumption and prejudice” and criticises it for showing ‘far too little concern’ over the consequences of its failures on both the illegal and legitimate migrant populations.
Despite years of public and political debate and concern, the Department still does not know the size of the illegal population in the UK.
It does not know what harm the illegal population causes.
It does not know how many people come to the UK legally and do not renew their visa, or how many deliberately come illegally.
The Home Office has not estimated the illegal population in the UK since 2005. It had no answer to the Committee’s concerns that potentially exaggerated figures calculated by unofficial sources could inflame hostility towards immigrants.
The Home Office does not know whether policies introduced to create what the then Home Secretary dubbed a hostile environment to deter illegal migration.
The lack of evidence base and “significant lack of diversity” at senior levels has created organisational “blind spots”, with the Windrush scandal a damning indictment of “the damage such a culture creates”.
In 2019, 62% of immigration detainees were released from detention because the Department could not return them as planned to their country of origin – up from 58% the year before. The Department doesn’t know why this figure is so high, or what it can do to ensure these returns are completed as planned.
‘INSUFFICIENTLY PREPARED’
The Home Office is unprepared for the challenges the UK’s exit from the EU presents to its immigration enforcement operations. In evidence to the Committee in mid-July it could provide no evidence that it had even begun discussions with the EU partners it relies on to support its international operations, including the return of foreign national offenders and illegal migrants.
The Home Office has belatedly accepted a previous Committee recommendation that it must extend its “lessons learned” review of Windrush Department beyond Caribbean Commonwealth nationals to include nationals from other Commonwealth countries.
The Committee is not convinced that the Department is sufficiently prepared to properly safeguard the existing, legal immigrant population in the UK, while also implementing a new immigration system and managing its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CHAIR’S COMMENTS
Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The Home Office has frighteningly little grasp of the impact of its activities in managing immigration. It shows no inclination to learn from its numerous mistakes across a swathe of immigration activities – even when it fully accepts that it has made serious errors.
“It accepts the wreckage that its ignorance and the culture it has fostered caused in the Windrush scandal – but the evidence we saw shows too little intent to change, and inspires no confidence that the next such scandal isn’t right around the corner.
“15 years after the then Home Secretary declared the UK’s immigration system “not fit for purpose” it is time for transformation of the Immigration Enforcement into a data-led organisation. Within six months of this report we expect a detailed plan, with set priorities and deadlines, for how the Home Office is going to make this transformation.”
A Home Office spokesperson responded to the report, saying: “We have developed a balanced and evidence-based approach to maintaining a fair immigration system. Since 2010, we have removed more than 53,000 foreign national offenders and more than 133,000 people as enforced removals.
“On a daily basis we continue to tackle those who fail to comply with our immigration laws and abuse our hospitality by committing serious, violent and persistent crimes, with immigration enforcement continually becoming more efficient.”
Why the Home Office could not provide proof of that ‘balanced and evidence-based approach’ to the Public Accounts Committee remains a mystery.
Politics
Criticism of Labour’s water pollution policy grow

RIGHT OBJECTIVE WRONG METHOD
Fraser McAuley, CLA Policy Advisor, said: “The Government’s laudable objectives can be better met by an approach which focuses attention where it’s most needed. Where a problem doesn’t exist, we should not be imposing unnecessary costs on a hard-pressed sector in a future of uncertainty.
WG HASN’T LISTENED TO THE SCIENCE
Janet Finch-Saunder said: “CLA Cymru is bang on the money here over Labour’s unfair stance on nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZ).
‘CULTURE WAR’
Carmarthen East & Dinefwr’s MP, Jonathan Edwards, went further and accused the Welsh Government of stoking a ‘culture war’ between farmers and the environmental lobby for electoral advantage.
“The Labour Government have also failed to consider the emergence of innovative slurry management technology.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Plaid Cymru’s candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire, Cris Tomos, said: “It is concerning that the Labour Welsh Government continues to ignore farmers and the farming unions.
“These regulations could be detrimental to the farming community, especially to the Welsh family farm.
A TIGHT TIMETABLE
If Labour intends to plough on with its legislation, it really has to get its skates on.
‘GREEN’ CREDENTIALS
Having promised a Clean Air Act for Wales in its 2016 manifesto, it is nowhere near bringing any such legislation forward. It appears it’s more in the presentation and consultation than in the statute book.
As Jonathan Edwards notes above: you’d think there was an election coming.
Suppose Labour cannot form a majority government propped up by votes from individuals like Dafydd Elis Thomas. In that case, it will need to haggle over its future plans or face legislative deadlock.
Education
Senedd approves Wales’ National Curriculum

Politics
Senedd elections: Dowson UKIP’s candidate for the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire

PEMBROKESHIRE County Councillor, Paul Dowson, has been named as UKIP’s candidate for the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire constituency for the Senedd
Elections.
Paul Dowson is the sitting UKIP Councillor for Pembroke Dock Central and will contest his home constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire and the Mid & West Wales regional list.
Cllr Dowson was born in the constituency from where he now runs his own TV and aerial business. He has worked in the hospitality industry, in social care and as a trouble-shooter for an international hotel chain.
Commenting on the announcement today, Cllr Dowson said: “I am delighted to be selected as the UKIP candidate for my home constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire. Since my election to Pembrokeshire County Council, I have been shocked at the void between the mainstream political parties and local people. Labour, Tory and Plaid have taken people’s votes for granted and, in this election, UKIP will give them a wakeup call they cannot ignore.
“The Penally Camp migrant crisis brought the reality of the Senedd Woke Brigade’s policies on open door immigration to South Pembrokeshire. I stood alone in the Council chamber when I voiced concerns from local residents, who were not even consulted about the decision to house 250 illegal migrants at Penally Army Base. In 2020, illegal migration into the UK was more than 2018 and 2019 combined. At a time when 1 in 4 Welsh people live in fuel poverty, Penally showed that Wales is ill-equipped to be a Nation of Sanctuary.
“Last year, immigration into the UK was at 715,000, something Senedd and Westminster politicians want to ignore. The Tories say they have taken back control of our borders but net-immigration rose to 313,000 last year. That’s a city nearly the size of Cardiff added to the population every year. Unlike the Tories, the figures don’t lie.
“Wales is being made to suffer the consequences of an out of touch political elite, who dismiss anyone with legitimate concerns about immigration as ‘extreme’. It’s a blatant attempt to silence opposition. I won’t be silenced. Wales needs straight talking, real people in the Senedd, not career politicians.
“I called out the self-proclaimed Marxist group, Black Lives Matter, when they vandalised property, defaced war memorials and attacked police officers. Unlike Labour and Plaid, I did not grovel on my knees to the divisive politics of the Far Left. UKIP remained standing and I am proud to stand with them to save Wales from the anti-British Senedd. “
UKIP Leader, Neil Hamilton MS, added: “Paul has been a lone voice for the people of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire. When other Councillors, MPs and Members of the Senedd put their careers first, he bravely stood with the residents of “Penally and called out Labour’s Nation of Sanctuary for what it is – virtue signalling of the most dangerous kind.
“I am delighted to have Paul as an integral part of UKIP’s Election Campaign. Voters have a choice: more of Drakeford’s Senedd or vote UKIP and scrap it altogether.”
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