New investment for Border Security Command

Up to £75 million in new investment for the Border Security Command paves way for an autumn immigration crime crackdown.

The UK’s Border Security Command will deliver cutting edge new technology, extra officers and further covert capabilities across the system following a significant, immediate cash injection, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced today.  

As part of the new Border Security Command uplift, the National Crime Agency (NCA), the police and other law enforcement agency partners will receive a significant cash injection to bolster the UK’s border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs.

The investment comes ahead of an expected effort by the smuggling gangs to cram ever more vulnerable people into unseaworthy boats launched from the French coast while the weather remains fair. Their industrial scale smuggling business is under sustained pressure from co-ordinated UK and European partner law enforcement action.  

The Home Secretary announced the package of up to £75 million, which redirects funds originally allocated to the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act. It will unlock sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities for the NCA to bolster UK border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs. The investment is designed to build on a pattern of successful upstream disruptions announced at an operational summit, attended by the Prime Minister, at the NCA headquarters last week.