David Bolt reviews year that saw the former Independent Chief Inspector David Neal sacked by James Cleverly
David Bolt, the interim Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI), yesterday published the ICIBI annual report for the year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
The 48-page report can be downloaded here.
In June of this year, Bolt returned to the role he previously held from 2015 to 2021 following the high-profile sacking of the former Independent Chief Inspector David Neal by the then Home Secretary James Cleverly in February. Cleverly accused Neal of breaching the terms of his appointment by leaking details of unpublished ICIBI reports to the media. Neal said he had been sacked simply for doing his job.
David Bolt notes in yesterday's annual report that the process of selecting a new permanent Independent Chief Inspector was put on hold following the announcement of the general election. The date when a new Inspector might be appointed was uncertain at the time of writing.
While he remains in the post of ICIBI on an interim basis, Bolt said his priorities will be to complete the inspections begun in 2023-24 that were still 'live' at the time of his appointment, and to begin a new series of inspections. Last week, Bolt published a list of inspection work in progress, consisting of three completed inspections now awaiting publication and four live inspections. The live inspections are: contingency asylum accommodation; Home Office country of origin information on Georgia; fee waivers (including the timeliness and consistency of Home Office decision making); and clandestine entry to the UK (including the civil penalties scheme).
Earlier this month, Bolt published a brief update on his work and noted that new inspections also include: Home Office processes and practice for age assessments; contact management, which covers reporting requirements and maintaining knowledge of the whereabouts of individuals; and a 'general maritime' inspection of Border Force relating to passengers and goods entering the UK.
Bolt commented in the ICIBI annual report: "My approach will be the same as it was when I was previously Independent Chief Inspector (2015-21): to press for the timely publication of reports (within eight weeks wherever possible, accepting that both Houses of Parliament must be sitting for a report to be laid), but also to encourage the Home Office not to wait until a report is published before implementing its recommendations; to examine the Home Office's factual accuracy responses objectively, making changes to draft reports where the evidence supports this, and noting the Home Office response in the final report but without changing the original text where this helps understanding; and to challenge redactions where I believe them to be unwarranted, accepting that the judgement of what is a national security concern rests with the Secretary of State. From experience, I do not expect navigating these issues will be easy, and no doubt there will be disagreements, but I do firmly believe it is in the interests of the Home Office as well as of the ICIBI, and of our many stakeholders, to try to make it work."
The annual report contains a helpful summary of the key points from each of the 21 ICIBI inspection reports that were published by the former Independent Chief Inspector in 2023-24 (see page 8).
David Bolt notes that a total of 104 recommendations were made by David Neal across the 21 reports, with 74% being fully accepted by the Home Office, 20% being partially accepted, and 6% that were not accepted.
Bolt added: "While the statistics suggest that [ICIBI's] recommendations largely hit the mark, as ever, the numbers tell only part of the story. Acceptance is not the same as implementation, as the inspectorate has too often found when it has returned to re-inspect an area, and again in 2023-24 re-inspections identified that earlier recommendations had been accepted but had not been implemented. However, I was pleased to learn that during the year there had been a renewed focus within the department on tracking progress with implementing recommendations from the ICIBI and from other bodies, and that the inspectorate is again receiving regular updates, as it had done up until 2019. As well as providing some measure of ICIBI's impact, this should be a useful indicator of where future inspections could add value."
In his earlier brief update, Bolt said the past few months have not been easy for the ICIBI, but it is now a case of pressing ahead with work so that a new Independent Chief Inspector can hit the ground running when they are appointed.