UK border controls at Heathrow, delays and the Olympics
24 May 2012
The recent delays at Heathrow Airport to enter the UK via passport control have attracted a great deal of media attention, perhaps unsurprisingly given the imminence of the 2012 London Olympics. Non-EU passengers have spoken of three-hour queues at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, and there have been reports of some UK and EEA passengers having to wait up to an hour (more than double the Home Office 25-minute "service standards” target).
There have been claims that there are too few staff on duty, and reports of empty checking booths at the border whilst the queues mount up. In the face of such staff cuts, there have been outraged reactions to the decision of the UK Border Agency to issue staff with a new uniform, which unions estimate has cost £2.5 million (although the immigration minister has claimed the cost was only £1.1 million). The Telegraph reported that under current government plans the number of officers employed at airports as part of the UK Border Force would fall from 8,500 to around 5,000 by 2015. (It is estimated that the money being used for the uniforms could pay for 800 immigration officers.) In addition, on 10 May 2012, a strike by staff at Heathrow over pensions threatened further disruption.
In March this year, the UK Border Force was split from the UK Border Agency following revelations that hundreds of thousands of people were let into the country without appropriate checks (https://gherson.com/blog/the-future-of-the-uk-border-agency/). The pressure is on to make sure that the border is "secure” whilst at the same time absorbing budgets cuts and minimising delays at ports of entry. Mr Moore, head of the UK Border Force told the BBC News Channel that the Border Force aimed to keep disruption to a minimum but "would not compromise on the safety and security of the UK”. "Overwhelmingly we are doing a good job on balancing getting people through whilst making sure the border remains secure”, he said.
But is it just a balancing exercise? A BAA spokeswoman said: "There isn't a trade-off between strong border security and a good passenger experience. The Home Office should be delivering both”. A representative from the Immigration Services Union pointed out that the UKBA knew exactly how many people were on each flight and exactly what time it would land.
Some MPs have claimed that the situation has tarnished the UK’s image prior to the Olympics. However, on 30 April 2012 immigration minister Damian Green vowed that all immigration desks at ports and airports in south east England would be fully staffed during the peak period over the summer, including the London Olympics.
However, it is not just the media, politicians and staff who have something to say on the issue. On 10 May 2012, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (effectively the UKBA watchdog) published his report "Inspection of Border Control Operations at Terminal 3, Heathrow Airport”. According to a statement published on their website, the Chief Inspector was concerned to find that:
• resources were not being effectively matched to demand;
• there were too many organisational changes taking place during Heathrow’s busiest time of the year;
• an examination of search of person records showed that in two thirds of cases, the search was neither justified nor proportionate; and
• the agency was failing to deal proactively with absconders.
The inspection compared the time it took for immigration officers to manually check passports and discovered that they were much quicker than the automatic ‘eGates’, which were installed with the aim of speeding up immigration checks. The report concluded that the much-anticipated ‘eGates’ have in fact slowed the process down.
So what is the solution? The recommendations by the Independent Chief Inspector include ensuring that arrests and searches are justified, training, evaluation of the current team-working model, ensuring and demonstrating compliance with Border Force Standards, the implementation of a formal quality assurance framework and the agreement on a single measurement tool for queue management.
On Tuesday last week (15 May 2012) the immigration minister gave evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee about the delays at Heathrow. He explained that a central control room was being built, which would allow information to be centralised and allow officials to see where queues were building up. After the Olympics 70 extra staff would be employed to help to address the problem.
Currently (according to the Skytrax ranking), the UK currently has no airports with 5 or 4 stars. Perhaps the implementation of the above measures will be the first step in achieving the necessary border security without undue delays, not only for visitors during the up-coming Olympics, but also for the overall improvement at Heathrow airport in the longer term.
