No high-tech scanners for Commons over fears terrorists could chop off MP's finger to get in

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Security advisers have warned that a suicide bomber would have no compunction about removing a politician's finger to fool scanners.

The decision appears to stem from concerns that MPs could become real-life victims of scenes played out in last week's episode of BBC1's MI5 drama Spooks - in which agent Ros Myers, played by Hermione Norris, removed a dead man's index finger in order that his fingerprint-encoded laptop could be accessed.

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Stopped: No high-tech fingerprint scanners for the Commons

The Commons security experts also said the available technology was unreliable and could not cope with dirty or sweaty hands, or those with particular racial characteristics.

Parliamentary security sources confirmed the decision last week, despite Government plans to impose the same fingerprint-recognition system on the public with ID cards and biometric passports.

All new passports and ID cards will be encoded with our fingerprints and checked by scanners at airports and ports.

But MPs and other parliamentary passholders will not now face the same checks to enter the Commons. Instead, they will have to type in a cash-machine-style PIN code.

A spokesman for the No2ID protest group said: "If they don't think fingerprint scanners will work for 650-odd MPs, how do they think they will cope with 60 million of us?"

The decision follows a security review in which the police and MI5 were consulted.

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Finger of Blame: Hermione Norris in Spooks

Westminster has been ringed with concrete barriers to prevent car-bomb attacks and metal detectors and X-ray machines have been installed to scan visitors.

The review was launched after 2004's Commons breaches in which Fathers 4 Justice threw flour at Tony Blair and hunting campaigners, led by pop star Bryan Ferry's son Otis, stormed the chamber.

The new measures will automate the entry system, which currently requires passholders to put ID cards into a swipe-card reader.

A Parliamentary Commission spokesman said: "House authorities do not comment on security issues."