I asked Minister for Future Borders & Immigration what future border security checks will be in Jan if we lose access to the SIS2 criminal database currently used to check everyone.
Neither Minister nor officials cd tell us /1
Govt says we’re likely to lose access to SIS2 for border checks in Jan
But also says they will exclude more foreign criminals
I asked how they plan to do that if they have no idea who they are
Minister says they’ll check the database
Back to my question. Which database? /2
It matters. Senior police officers tell us often how vital SIS2 is in finding/stopping serious criminals, terror suspects, sex offenders at the border & within UK. We check it 600m times pa. So if we’ll lose access to SIS2 in Jan, surely Govt has work underway on replacement? /3
Tried again.
If there are serious criminals we want to keep out of the country, how will we know who they are?
Where will the information be held?
Can it be checked in real time at the border?
No answer
This is for January /4
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2 senior civil servants gone over results fiasco but Gavin Williamson is still Education Secretary. Govt says he “sought assurances” it was all OK so it wasn’t his fault. What utter garbage. He was told what was wrong & he didn't sort it. This is his mess bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
This is the Education Sec who was told in advance that private schools were benefiting at the expense of state sixth forms yet he still went ahead. It’s in the Ofqual document he will have been sent and will have read before the results were published assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
This is the Education Sec who was told in advance that 30-50% of the A’level results were likely to be inaccurate with the algorithm, yet he still went ahead. Again, its in the Ofqual documents he will have been sent/have read before results were published
1/ New @CommonsHomeAffs report finds that Govt decision to have no quarantine/border measures in mid March increased pace & scale of the pandemic in UK so that many more people caught virus. Serious mistakes made. Lessons shd be learned on what went wrong committees.parliament.uk/publications/2…
2/ In Feb, UK had some quarantine for Wuhan & self isolation measures for places like Iran & Italy. But that wasn’t extended to Spain or France, wasn’t made compulsory & on 13 March self isolation guidance was removed completely. Those were serious errors telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/0…
3/ Just as other countries were introducing stronger border measures (quarantine, screening etc) in March the UK was lifting them & had no border measures in place for 3 months. Fact that UK approach was so different shd have rung alarm bells for Ministers bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
2. Only figure Home Sec had today was 0.5% - but that figure is not what it seems (It’s not an estimate of the proportion of people arriving in UK who have Covid)
And it also doesn’t appear to have changed since March 23rd despite the huge changes in the pandemic since then
3. Here’s my previous attempts earlier in the session to get to the bottom of it;
Q. how many people do you estimate are currently coming into UK with Covid 19?
A. We don’t have that figure, it is held elsewhere in Govt
I watched the Prime Minister’s press conference in despair. In a public health emergency communication and information saves lives. Yet time & again the Government keeps failing to push out a strong clear message to everyone. For all our sakes they urgently need to get a grip.
In a national emergency when lives depend on it the Prime Minister needs to ensure that strong, clear messages reach everyone on what they MUST NOW DO given the sheer gravity of what we face because we have a collective responsibility to save lives
Instead at the press conference the Prime Minister encouraged people to “follow the advice on social distancing.”
To have such a senior public servant taking court action like this against one of the great offices of state shows a shocking level of breakdown in the normal functioning of government. For the Home Secretary & Prime Minister to allow things to reach this point is appalling ...
The allegations made by Sir Philip Rutnam are immensely serious & it reflects extremely badly on the Government not just on the Home Office that these have not already been investigated, addressed & resolved ....
The PM & the Cabinet Secretary cannot just let this drift & wait many months until an Employment Tribunal gets to the bottom of this. We can’t have a dysfunctional & distracted Home Office at a time of rising violent crime, important legislation & Brexit security negotiations ...
Usman Khan was sentenced for serious terror offence in Feb 2012. Thought to be so dangerous by judge he was given IPP sentence to prevent release if still serious threat. Instead he was released 6 yrs later without Parole Board assessment. How cd this be allowed to happen? ...1
When the Government replaced IPPs in December 2012 they claimed new arrangements would still protect the public. Why have they failed in this case? ...2
What assessment did the Government make of the number of serious criminals or terrorists originally given IPPs who could be released early without any Parole Board assessment? How many other convicted terrorists are in this situation ...3