Q: Home Secretary, what do you do if your Independent Chief Inspector on Migration condemns your Dept?

A: You bury his reports about the Home Office for months and then get him fired

Brigadier David Neal, you have probably never heard of him. He is an ex-army officer, He commanded the 1st Military Police Brigade from 2016 until 2019. He had previously been appointed by HM The Queen as the Provost Marshal (Army)

So now that you know who he is do you know what he did after he left in 2019?

Would you be surprised if I told you that the Home Office snapped him up as their Independent Chief Inspector to make reports on migration?

• He defined his role as “To help improve the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of the Home Office’s border and immigration functions through unfettered, impartial and evidence-based inspection.”
• He served for almost three years, from March 2021 until February 2024

So why am I writing about him, well to put it bluntly the Home Office have stitched him up and then sacked him.

In other words, they did not like what he found and hid his reports on the migration crisis. What he found should have been put before Parliament by any of the Home Office Ministers who served in the Last Government. Instead, the Home Office read the reports and decided to bury them.

Official Government reports are usually anodyne. Criticisms are worded in such oblique and circumspect ways as to require a degree in Civil Service ‘Mandarinese’ to decode them.

Not so when it comes to Brigadier David Neal’s reports to the Home Secretary on borders and migration. He felt that only direct language would suffice. Below I have selected only some of his written words, to give readers a flavour of the strength of his concerns about the Home Office functions he was tasked with inspecting over the three years from March 2021 to February of this year.

Excerpts from official reports to the Home Secretary

SMALL BOATS

“…the chaotic Home Office response to small boats in the summer of 2022 would have been exposed significantly earlier had the Home Office not sat on my small boats report from February to July 2022. I made clear to the Home Secretary and to the Immigration Minister that I thought this delay was egregious and that I expected my reports to be delivered in a timelier fashion. At the time of writing, the jury is still out.”

“The inspection found that, overall, the Home Office’s service providers were delivering accommodation that was broadly in line with the statement of requirements in their contracts, but that the costs involved were eye-watering, and that consultation with local authorities when opening contingency accommodation hotels had been poor, resulting in damage to a key stakeholder relationship. The inspection also found that the Home Office’s plans to end its reliance on hotels failed to reflect an adequate understanding of the challenge facing the department and were therefore unachievable in their current form.

I observed, as well, that quickening the pace of decision-making on protection claims would be vital to reducing the pressure on the Home Office to provide asylum accommodation.”

“The inspection found that the Home Office’s performance in delivering an effective and efficient response to the increasing volume of migrant arrivals via small boats was poor, largely because the department remained on an ‘emergency’ footing, having failed to undertake the planning and investment necessary to establish appropriate facilities, and embed routine procedures, to meet the challenge. Inspectors found that the approach to managing the risk around security checks was inconsistent, that biometrics were not always recorded, and that safeguarding was sacrificed at busy times to ensure that migrants were processed quickly. Of particular concern was the very poor quality of the data collected and relied upon in the reception and processing of small boat arrivals.”

ON HOME OFFICE GOVERNANCE, MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL

“I fear that some officials, left to their own devices, would be content to polish and put a positive gloss on far too much, which results in a failure to deliver real change.”

“Addressing recommendations satisfactorily is a matter for the inspected body”

“It is poor governance and reflects badly on the Home Office being held to account.”

“In a similar vein to a reluctance to engage with recommendations, I have also encountered instances during the drafting of inspection reports where there has been significant pushback from the Home Office… Some of this is perhaps down to a culture of defensiveness, but it is not good.”

“I remain frustrated and disappointed over the delays to the publishing of my reports. Though there is a longstanding ministerial commitment that inspection reports should be published within eight weeks of submission, subject to Parliament being in session, none of the 14 reports published in 2022–23 met the agreed deadline.”

“The division between policy and operational delivery is a stark one in the Home Office. It is something that I am not familiar with from my military service…”

“This is not a skill set that I find in abundance in the Home Office. …Wiring diagrams of organisations (which should expose lines of responsibility, accountability, and authority) are promised and subsequently fail to appear.”

“My assessment is that temporary appointments at the very senior levels of the Home Office undermine the delivery of strategic objectives and create uncertainty for the staff.”

“Nowhere is this more evident than in Border Force.… It is hamstrung by the worst aspects of the Civil Service machine while struggling to assert itself as a Law Enforcement organisation. Other European countries have much stronger models and parliamentarians should reflect on whether our country is being secured as effectively as it could be.

“A perennial theme of my inspections is poor data. I described it last year as “inexcusably awful”. It remains an accurate description in many areas of Home Office business. Without accurate data the Home Office will struggle to prioritise and respond to situations and people will suffer

“The Home Office is particularly poor at communication and while the theme of poor data can in part be technology dependent, better communication and engagement is completely in the gift of the Home Office to address.”

“My annual report is one of the few statutory requirements placed on me by the Borders Act. Last year’s annual report was published eight months after submission. I hope, reflecting ministerial pledges from the Home Office, this report might be published in a timelier manner. This report was sent to the Home Secretary for publication on 27 June 2023.”

David Neal, Independent Chief Inspector, Home Office Borders and Immigration

Fact: The Government delayed publication of this latest report until 29 Feb 2024 — a delay of eight months.

Former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Migration, Col. Neal, is a retired military officer, known for straightforwardly presenting his reports, reflecting the military’s no-nonsense approach. This was evident in his clear and highly critical reports, which were unprecedented in Whitehall.

In the military, we prioritize efficiency. Reports are written concisely and directly to the point. That’s what I and every officer I encountered have done and continue to do.

Thats what we do in the Military It is what I did and what every other officer did and still does.

In this, he did not disappoint. He delivered clear and highly critical reports of a nature unlikely to have been seen before in Whitehall.

After reviewing all the reports by Col Neal that were available, it is evident that they are comprehensive and contain numerous recommendations. It must have been frustrating for Col Neal to discover that his reports were ignored by the Home Office until they were almost outdated and that only some of his recommendations were partially implemented, and in some cases, with great reluctance.

During his three-year tenure, Col Neal made significant efforts to improve the situation. However, it became evident that the circumstances were ineffective and inefficient, ultimately leading to his dismissal.

Perhaps, if his warnings had been taken seriously, we might not be dealing with a migrant crisis of this magnitude. It is reasonable to say that both the government and the Home Office cannot deny that they were not given advance notice.