Manchester Airport begins biometric ID trial

Manchester Airport has begun a six-month trial of biometric face recognition technology that will scan passengers and use automatic gates in an attempt to tighten border security and speed up immigration checks.

The facial recognition technology will be used to verify adult travellers with a UK or European chipped biometric passport by comparing scans with the digital photographs stored on their passports.

If successful these facial recognition gates could be rolled out across the country with the government promising checks against immigration and security watch-lists on 99 per cent of visitors from outside Europe by 2010.

The trial is part of the UK's £1.2bn e-Borders scheme, which has already screened 50 million passengers, leading to more than 2,000 arrests and large scale operations. These include seizures of more than £83m worth of drugs and confiscation of more than 800 weapons.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in a statement: "The UK has one of the toughest borders in the world and we are determined to ensure it stays that way.

"These checks make up just one part of Britain's triple ring of security, alongside fingerprint visas for three-quarters of the world's population, and the roll-out of ID cards for foreign nationals locking people to one identity."

There are also plans to set up a 'no fly' list to ensure passengers who are flagged up by e-Borders are consequently barred from flying into the UK.

The UK Border Agency also announced that the control centre for e-Borders will be based in Manchester, where they intend to tackle drug, gun, immigration and sex crime with a force made up of 9,000 working staff and 3,000 police officers.