Conservative Member of Parliament Robert Halfon has stepped down from his ministerial position, and James Heappey has also confirmed his resignation, setting the stage for a minor government reshuffle. This update is from the live UK politics coverage.

At 4:01pm, Rishi Sunak will have to perform a minor rearrangement. It is not yet clear if this will escalate into a more significant one.

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She expressed her disapproval for the times listed (3:21 PM and 5:06 PM), deeming them “shocking”. In a formal declaration, she continued:

This reveals a Conservative administration that lacks control over our borders and border protection.

Reworded: Despite the potential dangers posed by drugs, guns, and people smuggling, the country has been permitting high-risk flights to enter without thorough in-person screenings. Additionally, there is widespread exploitation of workers in the social care visa program.

Currently, government officials are covertly concealing the full extent of the errors by censoring crucial details and releasing the documents when the legislative body is unable to react.

A reply to David Neal’s investigation on Border Force inspections at London City airport (refer to 5:06pm). This response is more important than the one given for the Neal report on visas for care workers (refer to 3:56pm). The reason being that it challenges the accuracy of Neal’s approach and claims that his conclusions do not apply to airport border security in general.

According to the Home Office:

The report points out disparities in guidance between the Border Force operating guidelines and general aviation guidance, as well as the need for better training for staff. It also points out areas where the national general aviation team can improve its assurance activities. The report specifically criticizes the apparent poor performance in terms of Border Force physically meeting the number of GA flights at LCY and the subsequent record keeping. This is mainly due to a specific issue at that port where GA flights have been evaluated and recorded differently from the rest of Border Force, in contrast to standard practice. This results in a misleading representation of performance, which has already been noted by national leaders and efforts were being made to address it. It was an important issue that needed to be clarified before the inspection concluded.

At 4:23pm, PA Media reported on Neal’s findings from an inspection at London City airport at 3:21pm. The inspection revealed a concerning issue with security, as private jets were entering the UK without undergoing proper screenings.

PA says:

In a spot-check performed by Mr. Neal’s team at London City Airport, issues were discovered with Border Force’s handling of general aviation, which includes any non-scheduled civil flights. These failures were observed at a local, regional, and national level.

The assessment revealed that airport Border Force employees fell short of meeting their goal of physically inspecting a certain number of flights.

Unfortunately, a significant amount of important data obtained from the inspection was not disclosed to the public by the Home Office. This includes the number of general aviation flights that were physically intercepted by Border Force personnel.

Neal submitted a report to the Home Office on February 14th, as mentioned in his report.

Guidance designed to keep the country safe directs that all GA flights identified as high risk are met by Border Force staff, except in exceptional circumstances. At LCY, only [redacted] were met in 2023. Guidance also directs that a third of low-risk flights are met. Only [redacted] were met at LCY in 2023. This is shocking and something is clearly very wrong.

Managers at the local level stated that they handled GA operations based on the level of risk, considering the other obligations they have to fulfill under the Border Force Operating Mandate. They believed that their operational response was sufficient, but this is not acceptable by any standard. Additionally, it was noted that no one in the LCY chain of command seemed to be taking action, despite being aware of the situation.

After conducting a surprise inspection, the Home Office must quickly investigate and address the Border Force’s shortcomings in responding to GA flights at a local, regional, and national level. Immediate measures need to be taken in order to resolve the GA system issues identified in this report at LCY.

At 4:01pm, there is a possibility that Rishi Sunak will have to make some changes to his team. We do not yet know if this will result in a larger reshuffle. On Thursday, May 2nd, Scott Benton is expected to resign, coinciding with the local elections. Earlier in the month, Benton had made known his plans to step down as both an MP and minister before that date. At 3:21pm, the Home Office has released their response, stating that they disagree with certain details mentioned in the report and also disregarding the reports published last month which were based on information from Neal. The inquiry found that 25% of those with care visas were exploiting the system. The Home Office provides an explanation for their stance.

We have concerns about the mention in the preface of this report of another inspection (An Inspection of Illegal Working Enforcement) where it is claimed that care visa holders were found to be working illegally in 2 out of 8 visits during the inspection. This information has been distorted by the media to suggest that 2 out of 8 care workers (approximately 25,000) are working illegally. The Home Office believes this to be a misleading representation due to inaccurate analysis. There is also uncertainty about whether these individuals were actually working illegally or simply encountered on the premises.

The main argument presented by Neal is that including care workers in the shortage occupation list led to a rise in abuse of the visa system. The Home Office agrees with this point, citing the timing of the Ukraine war as a factor that diverted attention from enforcement. Additionally, officials were focused on organizing a system for Ukrainian refugees, which is said to have saved many lives.

Interestingly, the Home Office claims credit for the swift increase in the arrival rate of foreign care workers. However, this stance is difficult to reconcile with recent statements from No 10, which argue that net migration is too high and needs to decrease.

The government agency responsible for immigration and law enforcement, known as the Home Office, declares:

In February 2022, the government decided to follow the Migration Advisory Committee’s suggestion to include social care workers in the immigration system. This decision was based on the committee’s convincing findings that there is an urgent need to address immigration policies in order to fill crucial roles that are experiencing a significant shortage.

This project was completed during a time when the department faced great stress in organizing complex resettlement efforts for Ukrainian individuals who were forced to relocate because of the Russian invasion in that year.

Our prioritization of this humanitarian emergency, which rescued numerous lives, resulted in delaying the implementation of the care route. As resources became available, efforts were made to assist the industry in transitioning to the health and care visa. This enabled migrant workers to fill the reported 160,000 job vacancies in the sector and align with the Department of Health and Social Care’s goals of utilizing care facilities to assist with releasing individuals from NHS wards and reducing winter pressures.

Regrettably, certain entities within the field of adult social care took advantage of their position and engaged in deceptive practices. The Home Office was quick to detect these abuses, despite being preoccupied with the Ukrainian response, and began focused efforts to ensure compliance as early as June 2022.

In the previous month, the Home Office released 13 reports simultaneously by David Neal, the former chief inspector who was responsible for monitoring borders and immigration. However, Neal was deemed to be too independent in his role and was dismissed for leaking the information in his reports. This was due to frustration with the Home Office’s consistent refusal to make the reports public.

As anticipated, the 13 reports revealed some unpleasant discoveries. Rajeev Syal described them in this post.

The Home Office has released two additional reports by Neal this afternoon. If anything, these are even more humiliating.

The report focuses on the care sector and the immigration system during the time span of August to November 2023. It states.

In the introduction of the report, Neal states:

The Home Office has approved the suggestion made by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in December 2021 to include care workers and home carers in the shortage occupation list. In line with the findings of the MAC report released earlier that month, the Home Office promptly addressed ministerial priorities to alleviate shortages in the social care industry.

This report describes the outcomes of the Home Office’s incomplete understanding of the social care industry, its inadequate assessment of the demand for the Care Worker visa, the unsuitability of its sponsor licensing system for low-skilled positions, and the discrepancy between its limited number of compliance officers and ever-growing list of licensed sponsors. The findings reflect previous inspections that have pointed out the consequences of the Home Office’s inability to accurately predict, such as the influx of migrants via small boats. In essence, the Home Office chose a pathway designed for a mostly cooperative sector and applied it to a high-risk area – immigration into a fragmented and poorly compensated industry is vastly different from sponsoring highly skilled workers for multinational companies. This should have been apparent to Home Office policymakers.

Rewritten: The errors made by the Home Office resulted in the development of a system that encouraged a high number of low-skilled workers to come to the country, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Additionally, the measures put in place to control and reduce this risk were insufficient. With only one compliance officer for every 1,600 employers authorized to hire migrant workers, the oversight was lacking.

This document presents the shocking findings of the policy’s implementation, which include instances where 275 certificates of sponsorship were given to a non-existent care home and 1,234 certificates were granted to a company claiming to have only four employees. These examples alone could have resulted in up to 1,500 individuals coming to this country and being vulnerable to exploitation and working outside of their visa’s conditions. Although the inspection does not specify the full extent of this misuse, my inspectors came across migrants with care visas working illegally during two out of eight observations made during the illegal working enforcement inspection between August and October 2023.

On February 6th, Neal submitted his report to the Home Office about the measures that need to be taken in 2023 to address the issues he pointed out. However, he believes that these measures were implemented too late. He also expresses concern about the Home Office’s lack of a process to learn from this situation.

Chair of the committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con), concludes by inquiring about the government’s strategic planning, a topic he is particularly interested in.

Can you assist in establishing a government-run national school?

Sunak supports the proposal.

According to Jenkin, no other civil service in the world lacks a training center.

Does this also provide training for ministers?

Sunak has stated that there is currently a training program in place for ministers.

Young individuals are not actively involved in the political arena. Would it be beneficial for parliament to establish a “future committee” similar to that in Finland, which would inquire about the state of the country in around 30 years?

Sunak stated that this would be a decision for the parliament.

Jenkin claims that departmental select committees would not be in existence if they had not been proposed by Margaret Thatcher in a manifesto.

The hearing has concluded.

I will share a brief overview in the near future.

The questions are currently being posed by Philip Dunne (Con), who serves as the chair for the environmental audit committee.

Is it your belief that the parliament should have a more significant role in examining the upcoming carbon budget?

Sunak concurs with the overall argument, stating that in the previous instance where a carbon budget was approved, it was only discussed for a mere 17 minutes. He believes this is incorrect and acknowledges that Dunne’s committee has proposed useful suggestions in regard to this matter.

Did Defra say yesterday that sustainable farming incentives would need to be increased to boost food production? Does this suggest that you acknowledge food security as a common good?

Yes, says Sunak.

Next up is William Wragg, the chair of the committee for public administration and constitutional reform.

Are you still dedicated to reducing the scale of the civil service?

According to Sunak, he states that he desires to witness efficiency cuts.

Do you agree with Lord Maude’s suggestion to divide the responsibilities of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service?

Sunak is still deliberating the findings of that report.

What is your opinion regarding Liz Truss’s statement that she was undermined by the deep state?

Sunak states it is her responsibility.

Wragg makes another attempt, but Sunak reiterates that it is a concern for her. Wragg inquires if Sunak is affiliated with the deep state, and Sunak responds: