Still not fit for purpose More than six years have passed since the last government published a policy paper entitled Rebuilding Confidence in Our Immigration System. It was a response to the implosion of the Home Office's asylum and immigration service, which had been overwhelmed by a combination of Labour's failure to control the borders and administrative incompetence on an epic scale. The document set out to repair an arm of government which John Reid, then home secretary, said was "not fit for purpose." It still isn't. Despite official promises to effect the swift removal of those who had entered Britain illegally, or whose asylum applications had failed, we now discover that the entire strategy was a sham. This newspaper commented at the time that it was by no means clear how the Home Office's objectives were to be achieved. Beyond abolishing the sullied name of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and turning it into the semi-detached UK Border Agency (UKBA), there was never any chance of attaining them. Instead, the bosses at UKBA simply pretended they were getting on top of the problem. John Vine, the independent inspector of borders and immigration, has discovered that the agency made little or no attempt to trace more than 120,000 illegal entrants, giving them an effective amnesty while denying this to Parliament. True, the agency was dealing with a backlog going back years and budget cuts have also made life difficult. But the picture painted by Mr Vine's report - especially of boxes full of unopened mail - is ominously reminiscent of the shambles under Labour. Simply putting UKBA at arm's length does not relieve ministers of responsibility for this dysfunctional outfit. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, needs to get a tighter grip of it than she has so far demonstrated.