Border Force - refuse to answer questions?

[Michael1423]

I'm British and generally do not like my interactions with the UK Border Force. Last time for example, the bloke asked me to remove my mask (normal to check photo) but he then proceeded to look down for a good 2 or 3 minutes shuffling his paper around. I asked to put my mask on and he gave me his personal opinion on the pandemic not being much of an issue "....do you know how many people died yesterday from Covid-19..." ? I nearly complained but it was nearly a month ago now and I've forgotten his badge number. I'm sure they have more serious complaints than that so I left it.

Anyway, my question presumably in law I have an absolute right to enter the UK. Am I committing a crime if I refuse to talk to these people? Do I have to answer each every question or only a narrow subset? What else does he need other than my passport ?

[secret.simon]

my question presumably in law I have an absolute right to enter the UK.

The way I understand the law in the UK, there is no "absolute right" for anything. Every right is normally subject to countervailing rights of others.

Yes, you have the right to enter the UK, but after your identity has been verified, generally by the Border Force. So, I would suggest that you do answer any questions relating to identity. And that is quite a broad field, such as being asked where you worked or in which part of the UK do you reside, etc.

I have not had any issues with questioning by the Border Force, even when I was resident in the UK on a non-EEA passport. If you are being questioned more than others, perhaps there is something on your file with the Border Force that may be triggering more questioning. Submit an SAR to the Home Office to get an idea of what the Border Force official probably sees when they are questioning you.

As for them scrutinising your face for 2-3 minutes, I would presume that that is pretty normal. Your face could have changed from your passport photo (such as if you had a stubble and your passport photo is clean shaven, etc) and the Border Force officer would want to check that. And that happens to me at foreign airports too. You'd want to verify the person's identity before allowing them to enter the country.

Am I committing a crime if I refuse to talk to these people?

No, but you will be making your life difficult. They do have the authority to detain you at the airport/seaport in the immigration area while they verify your identity. Why not make it easy for both them and you and co-operate?