FT/EA/2024/0427 - [2025] UKFTT 01126 (GRC)

In relation to both exemptions, the disclosure of the operational tactics that were authorised for use by Border Force and the training received by Border Force or immigration officers in respect of migrant vessels seeking entry to the UK would prejudice the prevention and detection of the relevant criminal offences on the basis that individuals and groups facilitating these crossings could use information about turnaround tactics or similar tactics to identify the nature of the tactics being deployed, the circumstances in which particular tactics may or may not be used, the strengths and weaknesses in those tactics, and operational priorities in order to evade or undermine the measures put in place to seek to deter and prevent crime;

The requested information contained detailed information on Border Force’s operational tactics and decision-making processes beyond the specific authorisation of turnaround tactics which, if disclosed, would be exploited by organised crime groups and undermine law enforcement activities, both within the specific context of migrant vessels and more wider to organised crime groups involved in other forms of criminality;

Specific illustrations of the above concerns were outlined in the closed material;

As clarified by Daniel Tobias Whale, it remains a possibility that turnaround tactics or similar tactics could be authorised in the future. If they (or a variant thereof) were to be introduced in the future, then disclosure of the requested information would assist those planning journeys in order to evade detection and exploit the many circumstances in which turnaround tactics are unlikely to be authorised;

The requested information still contains wider national and international considerations that inform the law enforcement response of Border Force and which could guide the development of future planning, tactics, command and control and safety of life at sea issues;

There is an extremely strong public interest in maintaining both exemptions in circumstances where the disclosure of the requested information would prejudice the ability to prevent and detect criminal offences and compromise the integrity and effectiveness of immigration controls. There is a very strong public interest in ensuring the integrity of the borders and ensuring the efficacy of the activities of Border Force to prevent and detect criminal offending;

Whilst the Home Office recognises that there is a public interest in transparency in relation to immigration enforcement and border control activities, it also notes that, at the time of the request, the nature of push back tactics was already in the public domain and therefore the public interest in transparency in relation to the nature of the operational tactics which had been authorised for use was, to a significant extent, satisfied by the material which had already been published.