"Pressure from UK lawmakers to relax airport security"

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Relax checks to cut 'unacceptable' three hour airport queues, say MPs
Strict security checks on all passengers should be relaxed in order to cut
"unacceptable" queues of up to three hours at airports, MPs have urged.
By Martin Beckford 
United Kingdom - The Telegraph


The Home Affairs Select Committee called on Border Force to measure waiting
times more accurately and to introduce signs warning passengers how long
they will have to wait to get through arrivals halls.
 
It warned that the poor performance of immigration officials is damaging to
the travel industry and the "ordeal" of getting into Britain for visitors
could harm the wider economy.
 
The cross-party group raised fears that queues at major airports such as
Heathrow could lengthen again after the Olympics, as extra staff leave and
the normal workforce is allowed to take holiday.
 
Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee, said: "I am very pleased to see that
the Minister for Immigration has kept his promise to the Committee that
during the Olympics every kiosk at airports in the South East would be
manned. 

"However, as the Olympics finish international students will begin to
arrive. We must ensure that the situation does not revert back to that
witnessed prior to the Olympics.
 
"The Home Office must immediately reinstate the risk based pilot for entry
checks that was abandoned by the Home Secretary last November."
 
The "risk-based" trial allowed Border Force officials to waive checks
against a database of suspects for children travelling with their parents or
on school trips, while details in the biometric chip of Europeans' passports
could be overlooked for passengers and journeys deemed safe.
 
However it was abandoned after the scandal that led to the resignation of
the head of the agency, Brodie Clark, when it emerged that the checks had
been relaxed still further without authorisation.
 
In Thursday's report, the select committee called for the pilot to be
reintroduced, as it was "limited" but nonetheless "effective" in handling
"large, low-risk parties such as school children".
 
The MPs said that the number of Border Force staff fell by 457 in the past
year but it was not clear if this had been agreed before 100 per cent entry
checks were ordered.
 
The study also proposed the urgent introduction of "smart zones", where
passengers are screened before arrival in Britain so that any suspicious
individuals can be picked out.
 
Official figures showed that fewer than 10 per cent of passengers arriving
at Heathrow had to wait more than the expected times - 25 minutes for
Europeans and 45 minutes for those from elsewhere - to pass through
immigration controls in 2011-12.
 
But the maximum queuing time was 1hr 55mins or longer in each month,
reaching 2hrs 55mins last July and 2hrs 53mins in March.
 
"It is unacceptable for these long queue times to recur on a monthly basis,"
the report said.
 
The real queue lengths could be even longer, the MPs warned, as Border Force
only measures them once an hour and passengers may be held on aeroplanes
because there is no room in arrivals.
 
Boards telling passengers how long they will have to wait, commonly used in
theme parks, are already in use at Terminal 4 and the committee said they
should be introduced at all major ports to be "courteous" to passengers.
 
The report said Border Force is also affecting travel firms including
Eurotunnel and Thomson holidays, because of the extra time it takes them to
check passengers and extra staff needed to manage queues.
 
Meanwhile the business lobby fears the "chaotic" pictures of Britain's
airports project a "shambolic image of inefficiency" to overseas clients.