The GSD has issued a statement in reply to Government regarding the recent closure of the Office for Immigration and Home Affairs.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The Government’s response on the closure of the offices of the Office for Immigration and Home Affairs for one full day is weak and completely misses the point. 

The basic fact is that the Gibraltar taxpayer is having to foot the bill, by way of many thousands  and in some cases millions of pounds in rental of Government departments which are being  moved from properties currently owned by the Government to private properties. It is this essential point that fails to make sense from a value for money perspective, which the  Government is refusing to answer.  

In respect of the Immigration Office we are paying an annual sum of £217,680 (as at February  2025) and it is ironic that within 8/9 months after moving from offices which it was claimed  were not fit for purpose, in part because they suffered from water ingress, the services to the  public had to be stopped for one full day precisely because of severe and significant water  ingress in the new property.  

It is noteworthy that Technical Services, which is moving from Sir Joshua Hassan House to  the to be refurbished property (also at taxpayers’ expense) at the Dockyard building, on  grounds that the current Government-owned premises, where it is currently housed, are not fit  for purpose, is itself going to be used to house another Government service, namely the mental  health facility. On what basis can the Government defend a relocation to premises which were  found to be not good enough for Technical Services but have been deemed good enough for  the mental health facility? 

Damon Bossino said: “These issues are all the more pertinent when the Chief Minister appears  to be heralding a period of belt-tightening when discussing salaries citing world-wide  economic pressures. Perhaps he should be looking closer to home as the reason for the public finance squeeze which he is concerned about.” 

The Government’s positioning and policy in this area simply do not make sense.