From Michael Robinson, head of Jersey Customs and Immigration.
I WRITE to clarify the situation for your readers and correct any misapprehension after reading the proposal in the letter (JEP, 17 April) from Alan Holmes to conduct the Customs controls on passengers travelling to Jersey at their point of departure instead of on their arrival here.

I am always pleased to receive suggestions concerning the work we do and I am grateful to Mr Holmes for thinking of us. Unfortunately there are a number of difficulties with his proposal which I believe I should explain.

Mr Holmes bases his proposal on his belief that we are the same body as HM Customs & Excise in the UK, but Jersey Customs and Immigration is fully independent of any other law enforcement body and always has been. This is entirely appropriate as Jersey legislation can only apply to the Island and needs to be enforced locally. (Note: HM Customs & Excise no longer actually exists and its functions have been subsumed by two new agencies – HM Revenue & Customs and the UK Border Agency.)

Talks have, however, taken place with the authorities in the UK about the possibility of inspecting
travellers on their departure to the Island to look for items such as controlled drugs. The difficulty is that the UK Border Agency is fully stretched providing controls on persons entering the UK and can ill afford to take on this extra burden.

Nonetheless we do liaise fully with the UK, France or any other country to disrupt smuggling attempts if we receive good intelligence. On these occasions the authorities in the other countries are invariably happy to intervene on our behalf and, as Mr Holmes correctly observes, these
actions can, and do, save our Island large amounts of money.