UKBA bonuses revealed
The Home Office has defied the advice of the Home Affairs Select Committee and awarded bonuses worth up to £10,000 to civil servants at the UK Border Agency.
In the period from 2010 to 2011, 24% of senior civil servants were awarded a bonus worth between £4,500 and £7,000, while in the previous year 67% of officials got between £3,500 and £10,000.
The agency has come in for serious criticism recently due to long queues for immigration checks at British airports, and the chair of the Home Affairs Committee Keith Vaz criticised the bonuses.
“In January 2011, we recommended that no bonuses should be paid to senior staff. Despite this the Permanent Secretary has revealed that some staff have been rewarded with bonuses of up to £10,000.
“The payment of bonuses in the midst of failures such as the relaxation of border controls, the inability to clear the asylum backlog and the reluctance to tackle bogus colleges through unannounced inspections must cease.”