Blunkett backtracks on home office targets

Home secretary David Blunkett has admitted that the target of
removing 30,000 asylum seekers a year had been scrapped because it
could not be met, writes Sally
Gillen.

He told a meeting of the home affairs select committee that the
target, which would have involved deporting 2,500 people each
month, had been “massively overly ambitious”.

“We should not set targets that are not achievable,”
he said. “I made a mistake and realised immediately that
30,000 was not achievable.”

He added that a new target would now be set.

Blunkett also said the Criminal Records Bureau’s target
for processing applications for enhanced checks on people who work
with children and vulnerable people had been doubled from three to
six weeks.

He said the performance of the CRB so far had been
“unacceptable” but that Capita, the private company
that has a £400 million contract to run the vetting service in
partnership with the home office, would not be penalised for the
problems that have blighted it since its launch in April.