Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union that represents departmental staff and Border Force officers, said the home secretary’s decision to withhold framework documents explaining the government’s offshoring policy raises suspicions that it is “built on sand” and a cynical attempt to score “cheap political points”.
In an article for the Guardian, Serwotka also pledged to back legal challenges against the policy on behalf of the Home Office staff who will be asked to deal with its “disastrous consequences”.
It comes amid growing suspicion that the policy, announced last month amid the Partygate scandal, was ill-thought through and was expected by the government to be stalled in the courts. Boris Johnson on Wednesday attempted to blame “liberal lawyers” for delays in the implementation of the policy.
Serwotka wrote that the government was asked last month to provide documents outlining the roles of union members who will be expected to implement the policy, but none have been disclosed. He said it follows a similar failure last year to fully disclose documents related to its failed pushback policy.
“Our negotiators in the Home Office have requested policy and operational documents but none have been forthcoming. We were forced to follow a similar process in the pushbacks case where those documents that were provided were heavily redacted,” he wrote.
He added: “It can only be concluded that either the Rwanda policy announcements are built on sand and no policy framework exists to facilitate it, or they have something to hide.”
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Of course Johnson and Patel don’t like the checks on their power.
You have Patel who was forced to resign because she tried to implement foreign policy without PM authorisation.
You have Johnson whose track record on trying to rise roughshod over procedure is well documented.
The whole thing stinks of a last minute policy push to distract from scandal, all for the low low price of £120m
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Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union that represents departmental staff and Border Force officers, said the home secretary’s decision to withhold framework documents explaining the government’s offshoring policy raises suspicions that it is “built on sand” and a cynical attempt to score “cheap political points”.
In an article for the Guardian, Serwotka also pledged to back legal challenges against the policy on behalf of the Home Office staff who will be asked to deal with its “disastrous consequences”.
It comes amid growing suspicion that the policy, announced last month amid the Partygate scandal, was ill-thought through and was expected by the government to be stalled in the courts. Boris Johnson on Wednesday attempted to blame “liberal lawyers” for delays in the implementation of the policy.
Serwotka wrote that the government was asked last month to provide documents outlining the roles of union members who will be expected to implement the policy, but none have been disclosed. He said it follows a similar failure last year to fully disclose documents related to its failed pushback policy.
“Our negotiators in the Home Office have requested policy and operational documents but none have been forthcoming. We were forced to follow a similar process in the pushbacks case where those documents that were provided were heavily redacted,” he wrote.
He added: “It can only be concluded that either the Rwanda policy announcements are built on sand and no policy framework exists to facilitate it, or they have something to hide.”
–
Of course Johnson and Patel don’t like the checks on their power.
You have Patel who was forced to resign because she tried to implement foreign policy without PM authorisation.
You have Johnson whose track record on trying to rise roughshod over procedure is well documented.
The whole thing stinks of a last minute policy push to distract from scandal, all for the low low price of £120m