L

Lord Harper (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 28 October 2025

Debate

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

Contribution

The Minister just said something that I do not think is in the Bill. He talked about the security services. In Clause 3(3), on the functions of the commander, the Bill says: “A partner authority must have regard to the strategic priority document in exercising its functions”. Later, in Clause 3(6), the Bill specifically says that the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and GCHQ are “not partner authorities”, so they are not obligated to follow the strategic priorities set out by the Border Security Commander. That is correct, because they should be following the strategic priorities set out by the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary respectively. I am not sure that what he said about their working together is quite right.

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