Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they expect to introduce universal exit checks at United Kingdom borders by the end of the current Parliament; and, if so, what the scheme will cost, how many additional members of staff will be required to perform the checks, and whether, operationally, United Kingdom infrastructure is suitably robust to meet the additional demand.

The Home Office is on track to meet the Coalition Agreement commitment to introduce exit checks by April 2015 on those who leave the UK by scheduled commercial air, sea and rail services. We are working with service and port operators to minimise the impact of exit checks on port processes and infrastructure. The level of cost will be largely dependent on the technology and methodology adopted and the extent to which advanced passenger data is collected and used by individual carriers.