Policy Hub
On 12 January 2009, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee published a report (Monitoring of the UK Border Agency) which insists that the role of Independent Monitor of the UK Border Agency's entry clearance refusals must be maintained, ensuring there is no gap in the oversight and scrutiny of visa refusals.
The report notes that the Independent Monitor has raised important concerns about the training of UK Border Agency staff and the entry clearance process. It also reflects on her view that the quality of visa decisions taken by UK Border Agency staff is "reasonable, and very slowly improving" plus her concerns that visa refusals are often overly long and unintelligible. The Independent Monitor has also expressed worries that the higher level of administration required in issuing a visa refusal creates a "perverse incentive" to issue visa clearances.
The report argues that this particular role should not be discontinued until the new UK Border Agency Inspectorate is fully up and running and able to scrutinise decisions in the same detail that the Independent Monitor currently does.