Biometric Facial Recognition Security Trial At UK Airports
UK airport passengers are set to undergo facial scans for the first time from this summer.
The government has announced that airports will be undertaking a trial of biometric facial recognition scanning technology, with passengers' faces being scanned and the image being compared to their biometric passport.
Officials at the Home Office's UK Border Agency, which is responsible for border control and enforcement of customs and immigration, said they believed the new technology would help improve security by providing a more effective guard against identity fraud.
They also said the technology would improve passport screening, and help ease congestion - the security checkpoints using the new technology will be unmanned, using automatic gates, so theoretically saving passengers time as they pass through the airport.
There are some existing biometric schemes in operation, such as miSense, but these are targeted at business travellers. The summer trial will be the first time that the technology will applied to the mass UK air passenger market.
The trial is open to UK or EU passengers who hold the biometric passports.
It has yet to be decided what airports will host the pilot scheme, but Home Office officials said if the results proved successful, then the scheme would be rolled out to all major UK airports.
Project Semaphore
Knowledge about the trial taking place first emerged last week at an industry conference in London involving biometric industry representatives.
According to The Guardian, Gary Murphy - the head of operational design and development for the UK Border Agency - told a session in the conference: "We think a machine can do a better job [than manned passport inspections]. What will the public reaction be? Will they use it? We need to test and see how people react".
Officials say that the technology is likely to generate a small number of so-called "false negatives" - where innocent travellers are rejected by the system because the machine cannot match their face to the records.
These rejected passengers would be redirected to passport officers for additional checks.
The trial is part of the government's "e-borders" security programme, known as Project Semaphore, which is attempting to establish a comprehensive border surveillance programme for the entire UK. With regard to airports, the Project calls for the development of an airport passenger information (API) security system. The government wants the API system to eventually be able to check flight details and passenger identities to be checked against a security "watch list". The Home Office wants to have the API system monitoring 95% of all passenger and crew movements around airports by December 2010.
Gatwick Airport Anti Terror Training Programme
In related airport security news, it has been announced by the Home Office that London Gatwick Airport in Sussex is to become the first UK airport to use a new counter-terrorism training programme for its workforce.
The scheme, called Project Griffin, has been used by the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police Service since 2004 for the city of London.
The scheme includes training to give recipients greater understanding of possible terrorist behaviour, in addition to putting a structure in place for staff and police regarding actions in the event of a major terrorist incident.
Andy Flower, the managing director of Gatwick Airport, said: "The people who work around the airport are best placed to notice anything unusual. Through this initiative staff can feel confident passing on information which might be helpful in countering terrorism."
Source - Airport International's Aviation Correspondent
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