UK Border Agency Staff Suspended In Brodie Clark Row Have Been Re-Instated, Says Home Office

UK Border Staff Return To Work After Brodie Clark Row

Two senior officials suspended during the border checks row have been reinstated, MPs have been told.

Graeme Kyle, the border force's director of operations at Heathrow, and Carole Upshall, director of the south and European operations, were suspended last month along with Brodie Clark, head of the UK border force, when it emerged that key border controls had been relaxed.

Mr Clark later resigned claiming that his position was made "untenable" and the Home Secretary, Theresa May, admitted the number of suspected terrorists, criminals and illegal immigrants who entered the country as a result of the move will never be known.

Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), told the Home Affairs Committee that the pair had been "cleared" following a disciplinary investigation.

He said: "The result was a report to me saying that they did not have a case to answer, that they were cleared of any charges and, therefore, we have brought them back to work.

"The outcome of the investigation was that Mr Kyle had not deliberately been part of suspending checks against ministerial authority and that those issues rested with Mr Clark."

Mr Whiteman told the committee he had a "lively first three months" in his role and described the agency as a "curate's egg, it's good in parts". His "cause of concern" was creating a compliance culture and boosting staff morale, which is "very low", MPs heard.

The committee was also told that "archived" asylum cases could be wiped out by the end of the next financial year.

The UKBA was attacked by MPs last month for "dumping" 124,000 cases and giving up on them.

Mr Whiteman said the figure was falling and many of the records were caused by double counting.

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