There are a few posters on here that suggest that Canadian citizens and PRs returning to Canada not be questioned by CBSA officials at border crossings. Apparently UK citizens returning to the UK are not questioned and dont have to fill out any forms if arriving by air.

So how does this work Im intrigued? Do they just get off a plane stand in line and show UKBA their passport. UKBA do not ask any UK citizen any questions as to where they are returning from or what goods they are bringing in with them. I agree personal questions about income should not be asked.

Or am I trying to twist words or state facts not correctly. So again I ask do UK citizens get asked certain questions by the UKBA.
Maybe they dont need to ask any questions or have them fill out any forms as perhaps all UK citizens are law abiding persons and would never attempt to take goods that are prohibited, controlled or restricted into the UK.
Plus all UK residents always declare the correct amount for their personal exemptions and would never think of smuggling booze or cigarettes back into the country.

I think the UK Officers presume that all the important checks are done at the other side before the journey, like for weapons, bombs, terrorists etc.

All our guys care about is that the two suitcases full of cigarettes are for personal use only

I have travelled quite extensively over the last couple of years and whenever returning to the UK I simply present my passport and that's it. No questions asked about where I have been or what I have been doing.

It usually hard to get a "Hello" back from them.

It is possible however on your way out after baggage collection you could be searched. You have two routes. Goods to declare or nothing to declare.

So from there you could be stopped and questioned. They usually pick on specific high risk flights. Drugs dogs checking passengers bags on flights back from Amsterdam for example.

There is no point asking questions at the point of entry as there job is to protect the border and as a British Citizen it doesn't matter how law abiding you may or may not be. They have to let you in.

What if they are travelling back by car and arriving on the ferry?
Who again checks them before they get on the ferry?

Normally when you are a returning UK Citizen you queue up and show your passport.

There is another step where you are asked if you have anything to declare and if you do you have to queue in another line and declare it. Otherwise you are able to just exit.

Often they have sniffer dogs around the airport who will try and sniff out the smugglers. you can also be questioned at random.

If travelling by Car the same thing can happen, sometimes you drive straight through other times they might want to search your car

Hit and miss if you get a search there.
But cars are frequently picked and randomly searched either side of the channel. Passports are barely checked though. Again depends on officer.

UK registered car and they can see its a UK passport i've been through without even having the officer take the passport from me. Other times examined thoroughly.

I did get questioned once waiting for the ferry. I had been to the F1 at Barcelona and was driving back on the Sunday evening. We were waiting for the ferry in the early hours of the morning and there was a tap at the window asking what we had been doing, where and why etc. Although this was all after the passport control.

Basically, yes. In all my years travelling in and out of the UK (probably 100+ entries) I've never been asked where I'd been or what I'd been doing there. There's no form to fill in either for EU citizens.

Not saying that no-one is ever asked, but it seems rare.

Customs is a separate process from immigration. For that, you walk through a different door depending on whether you have stuff to declare or not, there's also a special blue door for arrivals from the EU. Whether or not you get stopped and have your baggage searched rather depends on your skin colour to my observation. In my many, many trips, I've only ever been stopped once in customs and, since I wasn't over any of the duty free limits, was in and out within 10 minutes.

+1

However, according to FL, this means the UK must be awash in illegal Asian carp and long horned beetles (I think this is what he was saying on the other thread).

Ditto. The only time we've ever been questioned was just after Madeleine McCann went missing, we were crossing back on a ferry from France and they suddenly took a huge interest in my daughter (who was the same age and looked v like her).

That's the only time any UK immigration official has done anything other than say hi and look at my passport.

Well of course citizens of the UK have a right of entry but how are all of the prohibited, controlled or restricted goods getting into the country then and who is bringing them in? I guess the UK doesnt have a problem with drugs being brought into the country or child porn, illegal weapons etc by its citizens if they cant be bothered to look at a passport.
I guess UK citizens are ok with the UKBA performing those random checks and searches after clearing passport control.
So its not all the foreigners bringing in that stuff then?
So the only people who get caught then are the ones known to the UKBA?
And if so if they are not checking passports then how would they know

Nice try
Did you bother to respond to that question in the other thread?

You seem really quite worked up about child porn and yet that's images, images that are as available in Canada as they are wherever the travellers are coming from. Do you imagine people print the images and carry them into Canada? If so, why would they do that?

Maybe they just know that all the checks were made prior to boarding the flight. Maybe?

How many times do people have to show passports before we.board. scanners, metal detection, shoes off shoes on, all before leaving Toronto.

I would expect that different geography is a large part of it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume Canada doesn't have a big problem with people smuggling things in on small boats, whereas the UK certainly does.