Call for unified frontier force

The government says it will not adopt Sir Chris' plan

A new unified border force should be set up to clamp down on illegal immigration, one of the UK's most senior police officers has said.

Sir Chris Fox, outgoing president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said different agencies currently had different objectives.

He called for a dedicated new force made up of police, special branch, immigration and customs officers.

The government has rejected the plan saying agencies should stay separate.

Mr Fox said the frontier force would have "total responsibility for all our points of entry".

So we need all those objectives being brought together with one organisation that makes decisions about when is the right time to act Sir Chris Fox

"I think that will make us a far more co-ordinated organisation against criminality and illegal entry," he told BBC News.

At the moment, the agencies involved all had different objectives, he said.

"The police service might be involved in criminality and may want people to come in so we can, if you like, follow them to wherever they're going with whatever they've got, to catch a network of criminals."

The priority for customs might be "to seize the products that they're carrying," he added.

"So we need all those objectives being brought together with one organisation that makes decisions about when is the right time to act."

Repeated calls

But Immigration Minister Tony McNulty said the government would not consider Sir Chris' proposals.

Mr McNulty said: "UK borders are controlled by the UK Immigration Service and HM Revenue and Customs in close co-operation with the police.

"We believe that border control is more effectively carried out when the border control agencies work closely together while remaining distinct from each other."

Border controls and a border police force to administer those controls is exactly what we need David Davis

The government has faced repeated calls in the past from the Home Affairs Select Committee to establish a new border security force.

The Conservatives are also in favour of a dedicated frontier force.

"Border controls and a border police force to administer those controls is exactly what we need," shadow home secretary David Davis told BBC News.

The UK's "porous" borders were being exploited by people-traffickers and drugs smugglers, he said.

"All these things are best stopped at the border and we are an island.

"This ought to be easier for us than any other country but it seems not to be."

Tighter border controls would help to prevent a repeat of the Morecambe Bay tragedy, he added.

The tragedy, in which 21 illegal immigrants from China drowned when caught in dangerously high tides, brought the scale of illegal immigration to the UK into sharp focus.

The Home Office has denied it could have done more to prevent the deaths after local Labour MP Geraldine Smith said officials turned a blind eye to the issue.

But Mr McNulty said 3,000 police operations in two years had caught 150 criminal gangs.