Spellar on stowaways
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• It's not just on tax that Spellar toes the government line. Commenting on the fines international operators face for carrying stowaways, he says "considerable improvements" have been made in port facilities and suggests that a "sea change" has occurred in attitudes towards guarding against stowaways since the fines were introduced.
"I think everyone would accept that there are some people who have seen it [people smuggling] as easy money and are engaged in it: and secondly that best practice hasn't always been followed. Obviously there has been a very considerable sea change in attitudes on that."
Asked if it wouldn't be better to establish a haulier's guilt before applying fines, he says: "Net all the hauliers being fined are within our jurisdiction. A considerable number are foreign hauliers, so recovering that fine would be far more difficult if we didn't take early action."
He appears equally intransigent on the issue of impounding vehicles when drivers are found smuggling tobacco: "The employer does have to take responsibility far the actions of an employee in order to ensure that they are keeping within the law."