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French officials have consented to start stopping small boats in the English Channel, following months of insistence from the United Kingdom.

This policy shift comes after the Prime Minister wrote to the French leader asking him to support the initiative and stating there currently "have no effective preventive measure" in the maritime passage.

French maritime police will be allowed to intercept the migrant vessels at sea, but only before they've collected their migrants, according to authoritative statements.

French authorities have rarely acted to prevent the heavily loaded boats departing from the shoreline because it is considered too great a risk to both personnel and individuals.

"It is crucial that we deploy these tactics this month... We have no effective deterrent in the Channel."

Currently, a French naval police representative states officers will begin taking action at sea, with the aim of protecting lives.

Notably, the official ruled out the use of entanglement devices to intercept boats, which had earlier been suggested as a potential technique to disable the engines of the vessels.

This determination to intervene at all is a major step forward, coming after a brief change towards a stricter strategy this summer, which dropped off when the previous Interior Minister left government.

This was demonstrated in July, in the run-up to a meeting between the Prime Minister and President, when French police were witnessed wading into the sea to slash the hulls of a vessel.

Now French authorities will again be permitted to intercept boats prior to they collect migrant passengers from the beaches of northern France, however it's uncertain how the small boats will be stopped.

Strong winds are presently delaying the start of intervention operations and the people-smuggling networks will be looking for methods to adjust to evade detection, as they have frequently done in the previous instances.

The Home Office and the Prime Minister's office have been contacted for response.

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