Lord Wallace of Saltaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what level of surveillance the UK Border Force practices with regard to maritime and air travel between the United Kingdom mainland and the Channel Islands.

Lord Bates

The Channel Islands are a part of the Common Travel Area. As such, Border Force is not permitted to conduct routine immigration checks on people travelling between the Channel Islands and the United Kingdom either by air or maritime routes. However, Border Force carries out a wide range of intelligence-led activity, which can include different forms of surveillance, to intervene against vessels which are a potential threat to UK border security in the English Channel. Where necessary, this includes mounting interventions against vessels which have sailed from the Channel Islands.