Now the UK Border Agency is at it
Today’s political news includes the story about thirty UK Border Agency officials, who are due to receive around £10,000 each in bonuses. Apparently, this is a reward for strengthening our borders and clearing some (not all) of the backlog of asylum applications.
Maintaining our borders is part of the Border Agency’s basic role. People shouldn’t receive bonuses for delivering what’s in their basic job descriptions. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest our borders are anything but under control: according to the Office of National Statistics, UK population growth shifted from a predominantly natural pattern (i.e improved healthcare and greater longevity) to migration in 2002, when “net migration accounted for over 70% of the total population change”. The Optimum Population Trust estimate the UK population at over 62 million next year, growing by a further 4.5 million over the next ten years.
In January this year, Lin Homer, UK Border Agency Chief Executive, responded to a report by the National Audit Office (‘Management of asylum applications by the UK Border Agency‘), with apparent pride in a job well done. Ms Homer’s response included the admission that they weren’t expecting to clear the backlog of legacy cases before 2011.
Ministers claim that Border Agency officials’ bonuses are revenue related, as visa fees generate income. However, visa fee revenues don’t appear to be down to the efforts of agency staff, who could hardly be described as ‘visa sales reps’. Also, there doesn’t appear to be any published evidence that the size of Border Agency bonuses is in any way related to the value of visa revenues.
This is just the latest example of the inappropriate and ill-founded bonus culture, which has prevailed for too long at senior levels within too many organizations. At the moment there is a groundswell of opinion in favour of ending this method of rewarding executives and high ranking officials. With next year’s general election firmly in the sites of our major political parties, there is an opportunity to address this issue and establish fair, sensible and accountable means of remuneration. It’s important, however, that this isn’t allowed to become an all out ‘witch-hunt’; bonuses have their place and ‘bonus’ shouldn’t be allowed to become a dirty word.