By Richard Johnstone | 19 January 2012

A Commons committee today said the relaxation of immigration checks at ports and airports last year was ‘highly troubling’, and followed a breakdown in communication between different arms of the UK Border Agency.

The head of the UK border force, Brodie Clark, resigned last November after it was revealed that some passport checks had been waived.

A home affairs select committee inquiry, published today, said poor supervision of senior UKBA staff meant the relaxed checks were missed.

The MPs said that once again poor communication between the different arms of the UK Border Agency and the Home Office had ‘been responsible for a situation damaging to their reputation’.

In July last year, UKBA began a trial that used a more risk-based approach to immigration checks. It allowed immigration officers to exercise some discretion in whether or not to read biometric chips in UK and other European Economic Area passports. Officers could also use their judgement to decide whether or not to check children against the Home Office watch list of suspected terrorists.

A proposed third element of the trial, to relax fingerprint checks on non-EEA nationals requiring visas, was not approved by ministers.

Despite this, independent UKBA inspector John Vine found that the fingerprint checks were sometimes being waived when he visited Heathrow Airport in late September and October last year. He reported his findings to UKBA chief executive Rob Whiteman on November 2, who suspended Clark pending an investigation.

In his evidence to the committee, Clark claimed that the suspension of fingerprint checks had been carried out not as an extension to the 2011 pilot but under a policy approved by ministers in 2007. He maintains that UKBA had been made aware of this.

The MPs recommend that Vine review the agency's internal communications and report to ministers as a matter of urgency.

Committee chair Keith Vaz said: ‘Border checks carried out at airports and ports in the UK are the final line of defence against those who should be prevented entry.

‘The apparent low levels of supervision at the UK Border Agency are highly troubling. The overuse of the Home Office Warnings Index guidelines and the fact that no one appears to have been aware of what was happening demonstrates a lack of oversight and a failure of communication.’

Clark is claiming constructive dismissal after Home Secretary Theresa May said he had allowed his officials to go further than ministers had permitted. The First Division Association, the trade union representing him, welcomed the publication of the report.

Paul Whiteman, FDA national official, said Clark had been ‘scapegoated’.

He added: ‘The report finds that Brodie Clark was open with his bosses, senior colleagues and the independent inspector about what was going on.’

The Home Office said it would respond to the committee’s report in due course.