David Neal (British Army officer)

David Neal was the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration and a retired Royal Military Police officer. He was appointed by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in succession to David Bolt who left the post in March 2021.

David Neal
Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
In office 22 March 2021 – 20 February 2024
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	David Bolt
Personal details
Alma mater	Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Bangor University, Cranfield University
Military service
Allegiance	UK
Commands	1st Military Police Brigade

Military career

David Neal graduated from Bangor University with a BA in English Literature in 1993. He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on Commissioning Course 933 and was commissioned into the Royal Military Police on 20 September 1994.

After service on exercise and operations across the world, on 22 July 2016, he was appointed by The Queen as the Provost Marshal (Army) and Commander of 1 Military Police Brigade in the rank of Brigadier.

He accepted the Freedom of the City of Salisbury on behalf of the Royal Military Police on 14 June 2018. This freedom was exercised by the Royal Military Police at Armed Forces Day on 29 June 2019.

Blackstone Consultancy

After leaving the Army he was employed by London-based Blackstone Consultancy as Strategic Security Advisor. He was a finalist in the UK Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs) 2021, nominated as Outstanding Security Consultant.

Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI)

David Neal is the third individual appointed to the post of Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. The ICIBI is an independent monitoring body that reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of the immigration, asylum, nationality and customs functions carried out by the Home Secretary, officials and others on her behalf.

Neal gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee in June 2022, where it was revealed that he had not met Home Secretary Priti Patel since his appointment in March 2021. In July 2022, the Home Office published a delayed report produced by Neal into the English Channel irregular migrant small boats crossings which was highly critical of the Home Office's performance and response.

On 24 October 2022, Neal again gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee which exposed serious overcrowding at Manston processing centre, conditions which Neal described as "wretched". This evidence prompted an urgent question in the House of Commons from the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Dame Diana Johnson MP, on 26 October 2022. A second urgent question on the same subject was tabled by Sir Roger Gale MP on 7 November 2022.

On 12 September 2023 in an interview with the Times, Neal reported that Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick was refusing to meet him to be discuss Neal’s findings from a visit to the Bibby Stockholm barge. Neal described the removal in August of asylum seekers from the barge after the discovery of legionella bacteria as a "shambles".

Later that month, it was reported on the Open Democracy website, that Neal’s appointment would not be extended after his 3 year contract ended in March 2024 and that he had been 'sacked' for being excessively critical of the Home Office in reports dated from February 2022. These reports were accessed by Open Democracy through Freedom of Information requests.

On 19 September 2023, in the wake of the publishing of the Brook House Public Enquiry report, Neal wrote an op ed in the Guardian which was critical of the Home Office's approach which was similar to reports that had been produced by the ICIBI:

"Rather than maintaining a sharp, clear-eyed focus on protecting the vulnerable, the department has been fixated on a narrative of abuse of the system by detainees and their legal advisers".

This led to an article in the Sunday Telegraph, that claimed that the Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick, was refusing to meet Neal over an alleged antisemitic reference in a report containing an expert review commissioned on statelessness in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The article carried a strong rebuttal from Neal who stated that he had already agreed to remove the quotation and that...

"…the quotation in question does not appear in the portion of the report that I authored as chief inspector. Rather, it is included in an expert review of the coverage of statelessness”.

In the December 2023 edition of Private Eye magazine, it was reported, under the headline 'Border Farce':

"Unusually, former army officer Neal has not been give a second three-year term, despite an impressively brisk work ethos and writing a series of hard hitting reports on various immigration cock-ups. Such a chief inspector sounds ideal, surely.......One Westminster source suggests Rycroft's [Matthew Rycroft, the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office] flunkeys thought the independent chief inspector to be far too, er, independent."

Neal was dismissed from his position on 20 February 2024 after a dispute with the Home Office over the release of information relating to the alleged lack of security over flights landing at London City Airport.

Neal's departure led to extensive media coverage including a leading article in the Times:

"The Times view on David Neal’s sacking: Shooting the Messenger. The departing borders watchdog deserves praise, not punishment, for doing his job"

The New Statesman reported:

"We are fortunate that people are willing to speak truth to power, even at a personal cost. That they sometimes lose their jobs in the process should worry us all, and shame those they are holding to account."

There was also an urgent question on 5 March 2024 from the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Dame Diana Johnson.