PRITI PATEL has been sitting on an urgent inspector’s report on small boat crossings since February, it was revealed today.

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) David Neal told MPs that he submitted the report to the Home Secretary on February 28.

The inspectorate committed to carrying out the report outside of the inspection programme in response to “intelligence and stakeholders’ concerns,” he said during his first appearance on the home affairs select committee.

“I would have thought it is in the interest to get that report out as soon as possible, certainly that was the spirit in which we conducted the inspection,” Mr Neal said.

Inspector reports submitted to the Home Office should be published within eight weeks. But Mr Neal said the eight-week limit was “routinely breached.”

Of the 12 reports submitted, 10 have been published outside the time limit, he said.

Mr Neal added that Ms Patel had failed to meet with him in person since he took on the role in March 2021, despite his writing to her on a “number of occasions.”

He said he was “disappointed and frustrated” that she had cancelled five or six meetings with him.

The ICIBI has carried out several damning reports on Home Office sites in recent years, including the use of former military barracks to house asylum-seekers.

When asked about the culture at the Home Office, Mr Neal said it was his impression that there always appeared to be a “crisis going on,” which he said was “unhelpful.”

Asked by former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott if the Rwanda scheme was having any impact on the number of people crossing the Channel, he said: “No, not that I’ve encountered.”