IND deceased!

[John]

There was a Ministerial Statement yesterday :-

Independent Inspectorate for Immigration

The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality (Mr. Liam Byrne): Last July the Home Secretary announced the biggest shake-up of the immigration system in its history. To drive through this programme of reform, the Home Secretary made it clear that the IND—which will become the Border and Immigration Agency BIA on 1 April—required more transparency and stronger oversight and accountability arrangements.

Today there are a number of bodies that monitor, inspect or advise on specific parts of the immigration system. What is lacking is a clear and consistent overall view. There is also no external oversight of key areas such as enforcement.

In December 2006 we carried out a public consultation on proposals for an independent inspectorate that would deliver an effective inspection of IND.

We are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed. The responses received revealed very wide support for the idea for an independent inspectorate and how it should be taken forward. This paper sets out the Government’s formal response to the consultation exercise.

We propose to create a single inspectorate that will focus on overall efficiency and effectiveness across IND’s and its partners’ operations, quality of decision-making, enforcement powers, access to information and the treatment of individuals, including a sense of comparative performance in different regions of the country.

Effective assessment of these key themes will provide confidence to Parliament and the public and to those who use and receive services from IND.

I very much hope that everyone who is concerned with the immigration and nationality system will continue to work with us as we seek to develop the improvements and assurance that this new, stronger and more effective inspection will bring.

So lets get used to it! From 01.04.07 IND will not exist and instead we need to refer to the BIA.

[Dawie]

So basically after you read through all the double-speak and waffle, they're hoping that a name change, American-style, will change their flagging fortunes. Let's not even mention the millions of pounds of wasted tax-payers money that name changes involve in changing signage, stationery, etc.

Unfortunately changing the way you implement flawed policies doesn't change the fact that your policies are still flawed. In fact the Home Office seems to think that the correct way of dealing with flawed policies is introduce even more flawed policies.

[JAJ]

So basically after you read through all the double-speak and waffle, they're hoping that a name change, American-style, will change their flagging fortunes.

Constantly changing names (and scope) of government departments and agencies is a bad habit that some politicians cannot break. It is not conducive to good public administration.

[RobinLondon]

The new uniforms are spiffy though! I love how in one of the press photos documenting the roll-out of the new togs last month, the IO model combined her uniform with a metal-studded leather wristband.

Rock on!

[British]

Ha! :-)This name change is only going to create chaos.

When applicants with ILRs issued by the erstwhile IND would return back to UK, they might be in surprise when the Immigration officers would tell all of them that they don't have any right to be here in the UK because the officers cannot see any documents in their new BIA computer system, regarding the immigrant's UK status

This has happened already with the existing IND based computer systems, so this happening with BIA systems is even more a stronger probability.

The case on this is here:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=13753

Good luck to all immigrants

[Dawie]

The new uniforms are spiffy though! I love how in one of the press photos documenting the roll-out of the new togs last month, the IO model combined her uniform with a metal-studded leather wristband.

Rock on!

To be honest I've always thought that the current way that UK immigration officers dress attracts more respect than the way that Continental European immigration officers dress.

Wearing a paramilitary uniform will either attract loathing from people who are already cynical about police (which they will look like), or it will attract ridicule.

What it won't do is strike the fear of God into would-be illegal immigrants. It's laughable that anyone in the Home Office would seriously think that illegal immigrants are going to change their behaviour because officers who are wearing civilian clothes today will be wearing paramilitary uniforms tomorrow.

[Christophe]

I'm not sure why politicians persist in thinking that people will be impressed (or possible cowed) by name changes. Sometimes of course it is necessary - for instance, if a department or agency is split into two. In this case, though, it seems (to me) to be wholly unnecessary and, as noted above, it will also prove to be quite expensive.

As with the introduction of uniforms, one can't help thinking that the name change is yet another example of style over substance.