Numbers who entered UK in border chaos ‘unknown’

Admitting that the scale of the fiasco – in which border staff relaxed some checks on people entering the UK – was likely to remain unclear, the home secretary tried to atone by insisting that such risks would never be taken again.

Ms May also said she had launched three inquiries in to what happened at the UK border force as she told MPs senior staff there had extended a pilot scheme she authorised in April, designed to focus checks on high-risk passengers entering the UK.

She said the extension of the pilot was done “without ministerial approval”.

Our task now is… to make sure that border officials can never take such risks with border security again. Home Secretary Theresa May

“Our task now is to make sure that those responsible are punished and to make sure that border force officials can never take such risks with border security again. That is what I am determined to do,” she told MPs.

The head of the UK border force, Brodie Clark, and two other officials have been suspended after border guards were told not to bother checking fingerprints and other personal details against a Home Office database of terror suspects and illegal immigrants.

Read more on the UK border scandal: 'Something had to give'

Border checks ‘relaxed’

Mrs May confirmed that the border checks which were abandoned by the UK border force without ministerial approval included checking adults against the warnings index at Calais. Biometric checks on adults, as well as warnings index checks on children from within the European Economic Area (EEA), were also abandoned on a regular basis, Ms May said. In addition, fingerprint checks of nationals from countries requiring a visa were stopped.

All of these steps went beyond the pilot system approved by ministers, which aimed to target high-risk arrivals. These measures included allowing border force officials, under certain circumstances, the discretion to judge when to open the biometric chip in some EEA national passports.

The pilot was suspended when Mrs May discovered that officials had taken it further than she had approved.

She added: “I did not give my consent or authorisation for any of these decisions. Indeed I told officials explicitly that the pilot was to go no further than we had agreed.

“As a result of these unauthorised actions, we will never know how many people entered the country who should have been prevented from doing so after being flagged by the warnings index.”

Reports into the incident are expected by January.