25,000 with little to go on

The new border force, sorry agency, is up and running. Now the 71 international airports, 27 major seaports and 10,500 miles of coastline will be a major barrier to would-be illegal immigrants.

Ahem. Despite Bottler's promise last summer that the force would have "police powers" to investigate and detain people suspected of immigration, customs or criminal offences, it seems that they will not be able to do very much of this.

Although the Government is denying the claim that they will only be available on weekdays, the force of 25,000 may be able to meet planes and ships on arrival 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but spread them among the nearly one hundred international airports and seaports, not forgetting the channel tunnel, marshalling yards bonded warehouses and inland investigations, on a 24/7 basis they will be very thin on the ground.

But never mind, they will provide some bite which is lacking at the moment. No, they will have no powers of arrest for people caught in possession of drugs or a gun. They may detain a suspect for only three hours, and must by then have arranged for a constable to attend. They have only a limited jurisdiction, over immigration and customs offences.

The Government has admitted that it is not a police force. It doesn't parallel the border police in other countries.

David Davies, the Shadow Home Secretary, commented, "Labour's much-hyped border service is simply the same ineffective border control dressed up in a different uniform" with "no new powers and the new agency will contain no police representation."

Their status in general is about like that of the Police Community Support Officers. These are well-meaning people who may exert some moral influence but who lack threat or power.