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Fingerprinting for passengers at Heathrow
Last updated at 12:07pm on 27.11.06
Security: New checks are to be introduced at Heathrow Airport
Fingerprint checks are to be introduced at Heathrow as part of the Government's security crackdown.
Discussions to install scanners at airports began before the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights in August.
The new technology - already in place in the US and to be tested for the first time in Britain - will be unveiled at Heathrow within weeks.
The scanners are seen as having a dual role. For departing passengers, airlines can verify the person who checked in is the one who boarded the plane. For arrivals, the fingerprint scanners will help tighten up border controls and preventing the use of forged documents.
The voluntary trial will involve passengers travelling on Cathay Pacific and Emirates. Under the scheme, known as "miSense", passengers will be invited to register their right index fingerprint and a scan of their passport.
They can then enter the departure lounge by placing their index finger on a scanner and running their boarding card through a reader.
The Home Office said, despite the fingerprint checks being part of a trial, it could not rule out the possibility of it being introduced as part of Government embarkation controls or the possibilityof prints being checked against the criminal record database. Meanwhile, travel company lastminute.com is to encourage air passengers to offset the damage caused by the emissions from their flight when booking a ticket.
The option to make a contribution to its "carbon-offsetting" scheme, costing between 50p and 90p for every hour flown, will be available on flights operated by the company's 300 airline suppliers.
The development comes after news last week that 400 British Transport police have been equipped with Personal Digital Assistants. The hand-held computer allows officers to check a person's criminal history on the spot with instant connection to the central criminal and intelligence database.
Officers say it means they will be able to spend more time on the beat instead of dealing with the growing mountain of "time-consuming paperwork".
Senior officers say it is the "most significant" advance in beat technology since the introduction of personal radios 30 years ago. Chief Superintendent Paul Crowther described the PDA as "critical" in helping to fight crime.
Reader views (2)
Better to reduce the paperwork that erode yet more civil liberties. We live in a country obsessed with CCTV and data bases. How long before every man woman and child here is on a national DNA and fingerprint data base? The child database is already a work in progress. Living in this country now feels very oppressive.
- Steve, Hereford
Can anyone explain where or how the money used for 'carbon offsetting' will be used?
People still need to fly, and a 50p here or a £1 there, seems to me to be another for of tax under another name. It's not as it if it buy a truckload of ozone repair kits, is it?
- Colin Redman, Coleshill, Warwickshire
