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Responding to the results of the annual stakeholder survey, David Neill, Independent Chief Inspector, said:
I welcome responses to this survey and thank everyone who took the time to contribute.
I am encouraged to find that stakeholders mostly find participation in ICIBI useful and are satisfied with their communication with my organization.
The feedback indicated that there were concerns about the Home Office’s response to ICIBI’s recommendations. This is an issue I am aware of and intend to investigate further in the coming months.
Many suggestions were made for topics for future inspections, all of which were noted and will form part of the consideration of my inspection program for 2023-24.
I would like to remind interested parties that they are free to contact me at any time, either directly or through my inspectors.
Stakeholders who had previously engaged with ICIBI through our forums, in interviews or by providing evidence for verification were invited via email and via the ICIBI website and Twitter to participate in the survey.
The survey asked questions related to stakeholders’ experiences of engaging with ICIBI. It also sought their views on inspection reports, the effectiveness of recommendations and new ways of working.
Thirty-seven stakeholders completed the survey, an increase from 22 in 2021. Respondents represented a range of organisations, including charities, trade associations, the aviation and maritime sectors and local authority partnerships:
| participant | Number of respondents |
|---|---|
| Charity | 18 |
| something else* | 6 |
| Trade association | 5 |
| A local authority partnership (eg a regional strategic migration partnership) or a devolved nation | 4 |
| Academic or researcher | 1 |
| Direct personal experience of Home Office border or immigration functions, e.g. EU citizen, asylum seeker, refugee | 1 |
| Trade union | 1 |
| Legal representative, company or chamber | 1 |
| Legal representative, company or chamber | 1 |
*Of those who chose otherwise, the respondents are:
- 3 from the aviation sector
- 1 of the maritime sector
- 1 civil servant outside the Ministry of the Interior
The headline findings are as follows:
Engagement with ICIBI
Overall, the results show that stakeholders find engagement with ICIBI useful, with 60% of respondents using ICIBI inspection reports for advocacy or engagement with the Home Office, and 16% for information only.
Of the 37 respondents, 29 (78.4%) were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their communication with ICIBI in the past year, while 3 (8.1%) had no recent communication.
Inspection reports
Of the 37 respondents, 33 (89.2%) said that the following statement, ‘ICIBI inspection reports pose a constructive challenge to the Home Office’, ‘completely’ or ‘somewhat’ reflected their opinion.
On whether ‘ICIBI inspection reports highlight good practice when encountered in the Home Office’, 34 out of 37 (94.4%) said this statement ‘completely’ or ‘somewhat’ reflected their view.
On whether “ICIBI inspection reports address equality and diversity issues”, 26 out of 37 respondents (70.3%) said it “completely” or “somewhat” reflected their opinion. This compares to 38.5% of respondents asked the same question last year who either “strongly agree” or “agree” with this statement.
Recommendations
Satisfaction with Home Office responses to ICIBI reports has declined since 2021.
Although 86.5% of respondents agreed “strongly” or “somewhat” that the recommendations were well focused, when asked whether “the ICIBI recommendations were effective in driving change in the Home Office”, only 20 out of 37 respondents ( 54%) said the statement either “completely” or “somewhat” reflected their opinion.
Only 8 out of 37 (21.6%) respondents believed that the Home Office’s responses to ICIBI’s recommendations were adequate.
New ways of working
ICIBI introduced new ways of working in August 2021, which include the start of shorter duration inspections to complement the existing standard inspections which last around 100 working days. The introduction of these shorter-duration inspections was intended to allow the inspectorate to be more flexible and respond to emerging issues, such as the increase in migrants arriving in small boats and the use of hotels to accommodate unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
Another aim of the new approach was to increase the inspectorate’s output to enable it to inspect more of the Home Office’s operations and activities in a shorter timeframe.
Short inspections focus specifically on inspector observations, while medium inspections focus on a combination of observation and evidence analysis. In both cases, the scope must remain focused.
The survey asked stakeholders whether the following statement “I support the new approach to inspection” reflects their opinion. Of the 37 respondents, 33 (89.2%) said that this statement “completely” or somewhat” reflected their opinion.
I expect
Responses to this survey will inform future stakeholder engagement and feed into our inspection planning. Work is now underway to track the feedback received.
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