Immigration inspector

Immigration inspectors are a managerial grade within the UK Border Agency, (formerly the Border and Immigration Agency). They are equivalent to the general Home Office grade of Senior Executive Officer but are titled to reflect additional powers of arrest conferred by the 1971 Immigration Act. They are warranted officers under the Act.

Inspectors are one of the grades within what was known as the UK Immigration Service which was officially subsumed into the Border and Immigration Agency in 2007 but generally manage a distinctive command structure made up of other warranted officers including Assistant Immigration officers, Immigration officers and Chief Immigration Officers.

Inspectors are usually referred to as HMI's on the basis of what was for many years their official title of HM Inspector. In 2007 it was found that no such warrant existed that entitled immigration to use the pre-fix. Buckingham Palace allegedly offered to confer the warrant retrospectively but the organisation turned it down on the basis that it was not appropriate in view of its new Agency status.

UK Border and Immigration Agency