Asked by: Duke of Somerset (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for some of the automated e-passport gates at London's airports not being available to incoming passengers.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
ePassport gates are open to UK/EU/EEA and Swiss nationals, aged 12 and over as well as adult members of the Registered Traveller Service (RTS). ePassport gates are used by over 70% of those passengers eligible to use them.
The ePassport Gates at London Airports operate flexibly dependant on demand, operating in banks of 5 and 10. Egate operation requires Border Force Staff deployed into monitoring roles such as behavioural detection to enhance security at the border and provide safeguarding assurances. The number open can be flexed dependent on passenger flow, if there is a large number of arriving passengers that are not eligible to use the e-Gates, a bank of e-gates could be closed, and those officers deployed to the main Passport Control Point to check non-eligible passengers.
If the eGates were to be open even when no eligible passengers were arriving, this could worsen the passenger experience of those not eligible to use e-Gates as a result of Officers engaged in monitoring roles, when they could be better deployed processing passengers on the main Passport Control Point where Officers can use various techniques
Asked by: Duke of Somerset (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to return the waiting time for passport controls at London's airports to the official target.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Border Force is committed to providing an excellent service and over 95% of all passengers seeking entry at Heathrow in 2018 have been dealt with within the service level agreements. But this must be balanced with Border Force’s responsibility to secure the border. It is worth noting that the 95% figure in the answer is in absolute passenger number terms rather than number of wait time measurements.
Border Force is taking a number of steps to ensure passengers are dealt with quickly, including through investment in technology and maximising available staff at the busiest times of the day.