Speeches by Norris.

“It is very much in line with what we have said. We know that, and it is really important that we do not merely focus on organised immigration crime. These are poly-criminals in many cases, but the vulnerability also exists for other things, be it drugs, guns or counterfeit products and the like, as well as the traffick…”

“No, that isn’t the position, and certainly not the position of the Government. First, Eddy and his teams do excellent work. They are brilliant men and women who go into very difficult contexts. We are incredibly grateful for the work that they do. Not all of it is at ports and airports, although that is clearly a point…”

“To build on that point, we recognise that this is a growing trend across the UK. On the last panel, we heard Assistant Chief Constable Beck say that he is seeing trends around hate and racism increasing on his beat. That is the same thing that my chief constable would say to me, and chief constables would say across th…”

“It is a hugely important question. It is not simply a case of resourcing, although resourcing is very important. We talk about our border in the singular, but our border is by its nature multiple. With regard to this session, we are talking about a common travel area where there are not regular immigration controls at …”

“Yes. That never reaches an end state, not least because the threat changes. As I say, the No. 1 thing, if I could change something in the room today, would be the data piece. I have to say that that is not specific to the Republic of Ireland; it is also true for France, Germany, Belgium and, in fact, the entirety of th…”

“The border is the responsibility of the UK Government. Within that, it is the responsibility of the Home Office. Within that, it is the responsibility of the Home Secretary, and within that, it is my responsibility as Minister for Border Security and Asylum.”

“It is a significant concern to me. Protecting our borders is a primary concern for the Government. Any abuse of that is unacceptable. You made a really important point in the previous session that what we see from organised immigration criminals—highly sophisticated, highly cynical individuals—is that they will seek to…”

“Ms Ribeiro-Addy, you know about the Online Safety Act arrangements in which we operate and Ofcom’s locus in that. As a Government, of course, we have a stake in it, but there is a careful balance when we are talking about free speech. Those platforms have to be used responsibly and there are sanctions, which are for th…”

“One of our challenges as a Home Office—colleagues have not mentioned this yet, but they doubtless will—is getting the right information to the right places at the right time. Traditionally, we have been really cautious about that because of the anxiety that it would create harm. My belief now is that, in the age that w…”

“As I say, they are right to say that the responsibility and accountability for decisions taken are mine. We want our providers to have operational-level, and certainly individual property-level conversations, whether they are with local or devolved Governments—“There’s an issue with your tenants in this property. Get o…”

“It is already elevated, because the changes we are talking about mean that the risk factors have increased. Obviously, the most important thing to me is the data, but waiting for data, when you already feel a risk, is not a good way of doing policy. That is why we are already making the increases we are making. We are …”

“Let me start with the second point first. I always want the maximum information I can have on any individual coming into the country. That has to be an unalloyed good thing. Certainly, anybody entering our asylum systems is subject to important biometric checks. We check against international databases and that gets hi…”

“You heard from Mr Capps about the embedded responsibility. That is common across law enforcement agencies, either of a shared geography or different ones. I cannot speak to the nature of that engagement; it is more operational than something the Minister would be engaged in. But that type of arrangement is really good …”

“We have different policies and geographies. They of course are a member of a union of nations that collectively set their policies, so there are going to be differences. Both parties to any border—this is true for Ireland, but also for France—are conscious of different convections that can be driven by different policy…”

“That is not something we have proposed.”

“No. We effect significant numbers of returns. We have effected nearly 70,000 since the general election. The moment there is a safe and secure hand-off from ourselves to a receiving country, that is their business then. We, of course, through our systems, pick up if people seek to come back. When people are asked to le…”

“We will know when people seek to return, yes.”

“That is something we committed to collectively in the spring. We are working through that. These things rightly have a lead-in time. The maximum data sharing as soon as possible is our goal. That is true for the Government of Ireland and the rest of the European Union. Those are negotiations and engagements that we are…”

“No, I have not. We expect our teams to interact with other agencies on the ground to use the suite of powers they have collectively in the best interests of an operational goal. That is obviously not something you would expect Ministers to direct. As I have said, fundamentally our interest is an intelligence-led respon…”

“Dame Karen, if you are worried for my job security, I always work out that I have the one job that no one is trying to steal from me—not least for this very reason. I assure the Committee that we are having that engagement on a very, very frequent basis. I think that full suspension is deeply unlikely, but the end stat…”