Sir John, with respect, the question answers itself, but not in the way the government would like.
You have asked why arrivals are not being systematically debriefed to identify the gangs. The government's answer is that smashing the gangs is the priority. Those two positions cannot both be true. But there is a more fundamental question beneath yours. Who is actually driving this?
Peter Mandelson admitted in 2013 that in 2004, under a Labour government, Britain was "sending out search parties" for migrants while publicly promising controlled immigration. Andrew Neather, who wrote the 2000 speech that opened Britain's borders, admitted the policy was designed to "rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date." Professor Alan Manning, former head of the government's own Migration Advisory Committee, admitted mass migration was used as a substitute for economic reform the public never voted for. These are not allegations. They are admissions, on the record, by people inside the system.
Hungary processed 47 asylum applications in the first six months of this year. The United States reduced border crossings from 1.6 million to under 240,000 within months of a government deciding to act. Britain, holding identical legal powers and international obligations, processed roughly 50,000 in the same period as Hungary's 47. The difference is not capacity. It is not the gangs. It is political will.
The government spends £662 million paying France to prevent crossings that continue to break records. It has announced £40,000 payments to persuade failed claimants to leave voluntarily. The removal rate for illegal arrivals stands at four percent. At every decision point, the path away from enforcement has been chosen, consistently, across governments of both parties, across three decades.
Your question in the Lords assumes the government wants to smash the gangs and is simply failing to use the tools available. The evidence suggests a different reading. A government that genuinely wanted to close the route would debrief every arrival as a matter of course, use the intelligence to dismantle the networks, and remove those with no right to stay. None of that is happening. What is happening is the performance of enforcement, raids announced, partnerships signed, slogans repeated, while the numbers continue and the removal rate stays near zero.
The gangs are the stated enemy. The border is the actual policy choice. And a government that has spent thirty years making that choice has every reason not to ask the questions whose answers would make it impossible to sustain.