Strengthening Britain's borders

Timetable announced for border protection and immigration reform

When I'm out and about in Hall Green people tell me that they want stronger borders.

They want us to shut down the causes of illegal immigration and hold newcomers to account, deporting rule breakers where necessary.

They also want a compassionate system, which makes and enforces decisions fast when we have obligations to honour - and lets those we need contribute to Britain as long as they speak English, pay tax and obey the law.

So it is absolutely right that Labour’s Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne, has set out a challenging timetable to secure the largest shake-up to Britain’s border security and immigration system for 40 years.

You may not have heard - but there has been the successful delivery of global fingerprint checks for visa applicants – three months ahead of schedule and millions under budget.  Now the Border and Immigration Agency will now set about a ten-point plan to secure Britain’s borders.

The milestones set out by Liam Byrne are:

• Within 15 days to check fingerprints before a visa is issued anywhere in the world; within 60 days to introduce on the spot fines for employers who don't make the right "right-to-work" checks;

• Within 80 days to begin the introduction of a new points system for managing migration;

• Within 100 days to introduce a single border force and police-like powers for frontline staff.

• The Border and Immigration Agency will also aim to confirm the number of foreign national prisoners deported in 2008 will exceed 2007 within 180 days; 

• Within 200 days to activate powers to automatically deport foreign national prisoners; within 300 days to expand detention capacity;

• Within 330 days to begin issuing compulsory ID cards for those foreign nationals who want to stay

• By Christmas to begin counting foreign nationals in and out of the country and to introduce compulsory watch-list checks for high risk journeys before they land.

• Finally, within 360 days to make and enforce 60 per cent of asylum decisions within six months with alternatives to detention for children.

Liam also confirmed that the Border and Immigration Agency had exceeded the Prime Minister’s target of removing or deporting more than 4,000 foreign national prisoners by the end of 2007. I'll keep you posted on the developments as 2008 is set to be a year of major reform to our border security and immigration system.

UK sees record employment growth

Great news this week on jobs.  In the last three months 175,000 more people have found a job, with the number of people in work reaching a record 29.36 million.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell for the 15th consecutive month to 807,700 – the lowest it has been for over 30 years. And Unemployment in Britain remains historically low, down 13,000 on the quarter and 29,000 on the year.

I'm really pleased to see these figures showing growth in employment for both younger and older workers alike - with 60,000 more 16-24 year olds and 95,000 more people over 50 in work than in the last quarter.
 quarter.

With record numbers of vacancies in the economy the opportunities exist for people to make the most of their skills and talents.

But I’m pleased that our Labour Government wants to do more, with our welfare reform programme and local employment partnerships to help ensure everyone gets the chance they deserve.

I know this story contains a lot of statistics, and I try not to put too many in my newsletters, but remember behind every statistic is a life changed by having the opportunity to work and get on in life.  Contrast this with the Tory years – when 3 million people were unemployed.

Tories are flip-flopping on Northern Rock

At this week's Prime Ministers Questions I was in the chamber to see the Prime Minister highlight the serial flip-flopping of the Tories over Northern Rock.  In September David Cameron said he ‘wholeheartedly’ supported the injection of liquidity of Northern Rock.  On Wednesday he couldn’t answer whether he still did.

On Sunday, he attacked the possibility of nationalising Northern Rock.  Then on Monday, he said the government should look at nationalisation. By Tuesday, the Tories leaked they were going to abstain and by the end of the day they appeared to rule out nationalisation in favour of administration.

The Tories’ serial flip-flopping on Northern Rock shows they cannot be trusted with the stability of the economy.

Labour action on human trafficking

One of the vilest crimes that threaten our society is the trafficking of human beings. This horrendous crime is the product of organised criminality, whose business is to make money from human misery.

So it was great to hear that Jacqui Smith, Labour’s Home Secretary, has moved to ratify the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking by the end of the  year.

The announcement marks another key event in the Labour Government’s strategy to protect the victims of trafficking and to bring to justice those who exploit them.

In March 2007 we launched the comprehensive UK Action Plan on Trafficking. We have also established a dedicated Human Trafficking Centre and provided £4.5m over the last five years for victim protection under the Poppy scheme, which supports adult women trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation.  I’ll keep you posted on this important issue.