Home Office Unveils Bold New Border Strategy: Reviewing Very Thoroughly From Dry Land
After two boats reached Kent unintercepted, officials have created a standing authority whose only task is reviewing the lack of interceptions, with no vessels, staff or radar assigned to actually intercepting anything.
The Home Office confirmed today that, in response to two small boats reaching the Kent coast without being intercepted, it has stood up a new National Non-Interception Review Authority. The authority's mandate is to examine, in detail, why interceptions did not occur. It has no patrol boats, no coastguard staff and no radar equipment, having redirected that budget entirely into its own operations.
Officials said the authority will convene quarterly to review each quarter's uninterrupted crossings and, where the review itself proves inconclusive, schedule a supplementary review to examine why the review did not resolve the matter. A rolling agenda has reportedly already been drafted through the end of the decade.
"We take this extremely seriously," said a spokesperson for the authority, before excusing themselves to attend a subcommittee meeting on scheduling the next review of the review. Asked whether any actual interception capacity remained along the coast, the spokesperson said the question would be logged for consideration at a future session.
The coastguard vessels previously used for interception have, officials say, been reassigned to ferry the review board's minute-takers along the coastline, ensuring that thorough paperwork reaches the shore promptly, even when the boats themselves do not stop.
Asked when interceptions might resume, a senior official said that would depend on the outcome of the review into why they had not been happening, which is itself subject to review.