Memorandum submitted by Geraldine Smith
MP
I would ask that the committee give consideration
to the following points.
1. That the Government failed to adequately
respond in a coordinated manner to the matters raised in my letter
dated 28 June 2003 relating to gangmasters and suspected illegal
immigrants.
Although I had warned the Government that a
large number of people of Asian origin were being exploited and
placed in danger by gangmasters whilst picking cockles on Pilling
Sands, it is clear that the information was not acted upon and
that no significant was effort made to address any of the issues.
2. That the Home Office exaggerated and
deliberately distorted the information relating to the activities
of the Immigration Service in the Morecambe Bay area.
The Home Office has repeatedly claimed that
the Immigration Service has participated in multi-agency operations
similar to the one on Pilling Sands in Morecambe Bay and elsewhere.
This is simply not true; no such operation has been carried out
in Morecambe Bay. I would draw the committee's attention to the
following extracts from letters I received from the Minister of
State at the Home Office [dated 12 February 2004]:
"I explained that there is ongoing enforcement
activity in the Morecambe Bay area, with the specific purpose
of tackling the cockle-picking problem. A successful police and
immigration operation went ahead in August 2003, just before you
received a reply from Fiona Mactaggart on the previous DWP operation
in June. On this occasion 37 cockle-pickers were arrested. You
were not aware until today that this had taken place and explained
that this may have been because it took place in a part of the
bay that was not in your constituency. I have attached at Annex
A a specific breakdown of the relevant activity:
Immigration service activity involving cockle-pickers
in Morecambe bay since June 2003.
19 June 2003—Pilling Sands, near Morecambe
. . . 19 June a joint police and DWP operation was conducted at
PilIng Sands near Morecambe Bay. This was primarily an intelligence-led
operation focused on benefit fraud. The intelligence and planning
was focused on the police and DWP as the priority agencies for
this particular operation.
August 2003—Morecambe Bay (the sandbank
close to Morecambe town) . . . 37 Chinese cockle pickers were
arrested by the police in Morecambe Bay. This was a police led
operation. UKIS provided Immigration Officer assistance.
6 August 2003—Morecambe Bay (the sandbank
close to Morecambe town) . . . The following day, on 6 August
DWP led operation was scheduled to take place and UKIS had allocated
Immigration Staff to assist. Because of the previous day's operation
by the police, there were no further arrests on this occasion."
[Home Office Letter dated 19 February 2004]:
"One of the objectives of the meeting was
to brief you on the Immigration Department's enforcement activity
in relation to cockle-picking in general and most particularly
that in Morecambe Bay. The details I supplied about the major
Police/Immigration Service operation on 4/5 of August were correct
and I stand by them."
"I also included details of the DWP operation
6 August which IND officials mistakenly informed me was in Morecambe
Bay. In fact, although it was another cockle-picking operation,
it took place elsewhere in the North West. Obviously I regret
this minor error but I hope you agree it does not in any way materially
affect the information I was providing you on the major operation
that took place in August 2003 in Morecambe."
I would also like the Committee to give consideration
to the following extract from Hansard: March 2004 Columns 1147-1149.
Geraldine Smith: Will the Minister comment
on the operations that she referred to in her letter to me? It
mentioned one on 5 August at Morecambe bay, on a sandbank close
to Morecambe town, and one on 6 August on the sandbank close to
Morecambe town—operations that did not take place. Is she
seriously suggesting that the reaction of the police to complaints
from residents in Morecambe is directly comparable with a pre-planned
multi-agency operation that took place on Pilling sands or, indeed,
on the Dee?
Beverley Hughes: No, I am not saying
that. I shall get to that point in a moment.
The next relevant incident that my hon. Friend
referred to occurred on 6 August at Thurstaston on the Wirral
Dee estuary. This was a Department for Work and Pensions-led operation
that targeted cockle pickers on the River Dee. The immigration
service provided two immigration officers in support of the operation,
but no foreign nationals were encountered on that day.
We now arrive at the tragic events of 5 February
this year, after which I had a meeting with my hon. Friend the
Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale on 12 February.
During our meeting, I agreed to set out in writing
the immigration service's enforcement activity in relation to
cockle picking, which I did the same day. We tried to fax it to
my hon. Friend that day, but we could not get it through on the
fax machine. I also promised to let her have details of the number
of rescue operations carried out in the Morecambe bay area, and
I have written to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to ask it
to provide her with the information.
My hon. Friend then wrote to me on 19 February
to point out what she considered to be discrepancies between the
information in my letter of 12 February and the events as she
understood them. I responded that day by saying that I understood
that the details that I had given about the incident on 4 and
5 August were correct, but that I had been given the incorrect
location for the operation on 6 August by officials—an error
which I regretted.
An investigation of how the erroneous information
came to be given to me by officials has been undertaken by a senior
member of the immigration and nationality directorate. It highlights
significant inadequacies in record keeping in the Liverpool enforcement
office. As a result, the details that I sent to my hon. Friend
were drawn up on the basis of the recollection of staff who were
available at the time, and they have turned out to be faulty.
I am satisfied that this was done with the best of intentions
of giving as full an account as possible. However, the staff responsible
have been told in the strongest terms that in such cases the need
for accuracy is absolutely paramount. Information should be checked,
and any doubt about its accuracy should be made clear.
Geraldine Smith: What about the linkage
in the operations between 5 August and 6 August? If it was just
a simple error, it was just incompetence, and officials made a
mistake about the location; why did they link the two operations
together, and why did they say that no one had been arrested on
6 August because of the arrests on the previous day?
Beverley Hughes: Perhaps I can clarify
those issues as I continue.
The most serious problem is the absence of satisfactory
records on the basis of which a confident and accurate account
could and should have been given. The investigating officer, supported
by a colleague from IND's human resources directorate, will now
look further into how these management failures came about so
that senior management can consider what further action would
be appropriate. In the meantime, an additional senior manager
has been appointed to lead the Liverpool office and to implement
the necessary changes there.
Now that the matter has been investigated, it
is also clear that aspects of the details given to me by officials
about the role of the immigration service in the events of the
4 August and 5 August were not wholly accurate, and I regret that
as a result my hon. Friend was not given the full picture. However,
the broad outline of that picture was correct—that on those
days there was a police-led activity in the Morecambe bay area
involving Chinese cockle pickers, which the immigration service
supported when requested.
I would also like to draw to the attention of
the committee to the details contained in the attached police
reports [not printed]. These documents give details of police
activities relating to suspected illegal in immigrants in Morecambe.
I believe that taken together the foregoing
reveals an unacceptable level of incompetence within the Immigration
Service and uncovers a deliberate attempt to portray a false picture
of their activities in the Morecambe Bay area.
April 2004
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