NO appointments are to be made from a recruitment campaign for UK Border Force officers in Northern Ireland following a legal challenge to removing a requirement for applicants with police or military backgrounds.
An order confirmed at the High Court also set out plans for a review of criteria to ensure law enforcement experience is treated the same for positions throughout the UK in future.
It is the latest issue to emerge from the Border Force's recent recruitment drive ahead of Brexit.
In April the Home Office apologised and re-advertised more than 1,000 jobs – including 21 based in Northern Ireland – following discrimination claims after The Irish News revealed applications were restricted to only British passport holders.
The latest development came in a case brought by Ciaran Gorman. He was seeking to judicially review the director general of Border Force over a decision in April to remove the criterion of two years' service in the police or armed forces for a role as an officer based in Northern Ireland.
His lawyers contended that the move was irrational.
A ministerial letter from the Home Office stated that Border Force removed the requirement in Northern Ireland for the recruitment campaign following concerns raised by the Equality Commission.
It was suggested the criterion could discriminate on grounds of community background and gender in a Northern Ireland context.
Legal papers which formed part of the response to the challenge claimed retaining those requirements would have the unjustifiable effect of discouraging those from all community backgrounds from applying.
Omitting the criteria does not disadvantage those from a Protestant or unionist background, but removes a disadvantage for those from a Catholic or nationalist background, it was contended.
However, in court yesterday the case was ended on the basis of an order confirmed by Mr Justice McCloskey.
It stated: "The intended respondent (Border Force) will not make any appointments from the applications received during the external recruitment campaign, or at all, which commenced in and around April 2018 in Northern Ireland."
The order also set out that no further external recruitment campaign within Northern Ireland will be commenced pending the implementation of a review of experience criteria.
It added: "The intended respondent will review the recruitment criteria for further applications to Border Force, such that recruitment is on the basis of using success-based criteria which will seek input on the full range of skills and strengths required for the relevant role."
That criteria "will be applied consistently across roles in Northern Ireland and in the remainder of the United Kingdom, and will not treat experience by way of law enforcement or investigations differently for roles in NI from the same roles in the remainder of the UK."
