Chief Constable Gary Roberts has told a Tynwald committee that the island’s border ’isn’t protected’ and is a ’weak point’ in the UK’s border.

Gary Roberts was speaking to the social affairs policy review committee alongside Home Affairs Minister Bill Malarkey, chief executive Dan Davies and prison governor Bob McColm.

He was asked by Onchan MHK Julie Edge about the readiness of the island’s ports ahead of Brexit and changes to security at Ronaldsway airport.

Mr Roberts said that he doesn’t believe the impact will be immediate from Brexit Day but is a ’medium term’ concern of the police force.

He told the committee that in previous annual reports, he has told Tynwald members of his concerns about ’drugs, easy access onto the Steam Packet and travelling offenders’.

The Chief Constable added: ’Those risks are not going to get better and actually our border isn’t protected at the moment.’

Ms Edge asked if the police had any input into the new terminal in Liverpool to improve security of the island’s border, he confirmed they had not.

Steam Packet passengers are not required to provide photographic identification. However there have been incidents in recent years such as after the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 where the terror threat level was raised and passengers were required to show ID for a period.

In his 2014/15 annual report, Mr Roberts said made the case for ID checks for ferry passengers to the island.

He said: ’There are now no real restrictions on people travelling to the island. It is safe to say that travelling criminals, especially those involved in drugs importation, exploit this. As a small island community we ought to be concerned about this.’

Then Home Affairs Minister Juan Watterson said: ’I recognise that the possibility of introducing legislation to require identity checks at harbours is a contentious issue.

’It is essential to ensure we balance the need for enhanced border identity measures alongside any inconvenience to the travelling public and additional cost for our ferry operators.’

Despite 58% of people in a public consultation supporting the introduction of checks, it has never been brought before Tynwald.

Mr Roberts also said that the police were ’interested’ to ’learn and see about the changes at the airport’ following the privatisation of the airport security team.

He added: ’Brexit will pose potentially a significant issue around the safety of the island’s borders.

’Irrespective of what happens, we will have a border with the Republic of Ireland, despite there being a common travel area.

’The Isle of Man potentially is a weak part of the UK border. We as a public service have been discussing that but there needs to be a political discussion about that fairly soon.’