Airport scanner IS the face of things to come

Alice McKeegan

November 27, 2009

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Phil Woolas MP on a visit to Manchester Airport t watch UK Border Agency workers in action. Pictured using the new face recognition passport scanners

SCANNERS which match the faces of passengers to their passports are to be fitted at all British airports after a successful trial in Manchester.

More than 300,000 passengers have been scanned since the machines were installed at Manchester Airport's Terminal One a year ago.

They can reduce queues by allowing them to bypass traditional passport control.

The machines take around 15 seconds to scan each passenger's face and check it against the digital photograph recorded in their passport.

Individuals are also checked against international watch-lists before being allowed to pass through. Anyone refused entry is quizzed by UK Border Agency officials who monitor the gates.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas unveiled the latest machines in Terminal Two. He hopes the technology will continue to improve border security and help to cut queues at arrivals.

He said: “Every year over 280 million people come to the UK and in order to keep our borders safe we are introducing these gates at Manchester.

“By scanning passengers' faces we can catch criminals coming into the country and this will help to make the UK safer.

“Manchester was the first place in the country to have these machines and we hope to roll the machines out to all airports within the next three years.”

At the moment the system is voluntary and only passengers with the bio-metric passports are eligible.

Mr Woolas told the M.E.N. he is confident that the technology uses elaborate security measures so that even criminals with plastic surgery would not be able to deceive the machines.

The facial recognition gates are part of the biggest shake-up in UK border security for 40 years.

Andrew Cornish, managing director of Manchester Airport, said: “Our passengers tell us that this new technology in our immigration halls provides an even smoother entry process.”

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Black Flag (27/11/2009 at 13:15)

Phil Woolas: "By scanning passengers' faces we can catch criminals coming into the country and this will help to make the UK safer."

This claim, as with most Labour spin, is unsubstantiated rubbish.

Scanning the passport is what allows a match to a watchlist to be made. Scanning the face in order to match it to the passport would only achieve the claimed benefit if the machines were demonstrably better at matching a face to a photo than Border Agency staff. I've yet to see any evidence that they are.

theoracle1981, manchester (27/11/2009 at 16:04)

Im waiting for the lefty brigade to rant about their human rights being breached blah blah blah

Black Flag (27/11/2009 at 16:23)

theoracle1981: "Im waiting for the lefty brigade to rant about their human rights being breached blah blah blah"

Funny how some people trot out the idea of human rights being a "lefty" concern, when most of the infringements of civil liberties that have occured in the UK have occured under Labour, the traditional party of the left.

In Britain, it's generally the "left" which wants a large, powerful state and the "right" which wants a limited state, hence the Tories being generally less enthusiastic about the database state etc. than Labour.

Joe Pub, Manchester (27/11/2009 at 16:33)

If we had not invaded iraq or Afghanstan we would not need machines like this.

Mrs Jammy, Sitting on the settee (27/11/2009 at 16:43)

A machine to scan faces to match them with the passport photos - why? Do the passport control workers not have eyes?

Mark,Radcliffe. (27/11/2009 at 18:17)

So is Iris-recognition scanning now redundant ?

Horatio Dogsbody, Flixton (27/11/2009 at 23:10)

"So is Iris-recognition scanning now redundant ? "

It never worked properly anyway. I took part in a large scale trial of iris scanners and other biometric readers for a large organisation a few years ago and the system was totally unreliable. There were many false positives - it identified me as being someone else and other people as being me. Other times it just failed to identify me as anybody at all.

Having tried the technology I am sceptical about all claims made concerning the wonders of biometrics. The manufacturers saw the politicians coming.

It may be 33 yrs but it will never be 37yrs. (28/11/2009 at 13:55)

So now there is a scanner to match the passport photo with the holder of the passport, does this mean the governments ID card folly is redundant.

Horatio Dogsbody, Flixton (28/11/2009 at 20:38)

"does this mean the governments ID card folly is redundant."

I doubt it. There is a lot of money involved in the manufacture and purchase of the cards, the readers, the computers and the databases involved in the project, plus whatever private company is selected to run it all. The companies have seen the politicians coming.

to the point, bury (29/11/2009 at 12:29)

Ok then, we have full body scan, face scan and pat-downs etc.
But what checks are made on airport staff, I have seen cleaners (with black bags) go airside walking past the metal detector arch and when asked why don’t you go through the arch, ‘the rubbish in the bag sets it off’ so anything could be in the bag and be planted on an aircraft.

keyjockey, Manchester (30/11/2009 at 11:25)

"Immigration minister Phil Woolas unveiled the latest machines in Terminal Two". That will soon read "Phil Woolas who lost his seat in the May 2010 general election."

Kelly Bebb (30/11/2009 at 16:06)

I've seen what you think, I'm doing a research project on the topic of increasing security at airports, in particular the introduction of this and the Naked scanner. I'd welcome any comments you have; the more opinionated the better so I can show the public's true feelings on this topic.

citycentre, manchester (01/12/2009 at 09:55)

Kelly Bebb

Good luck with that, there are usually a range of views here, from government is always wrong and should be abolished, to governent should have whatever powers they see fit to keep us all safe from whatever threat they are talking about that week.
The thing I find odd, although this may be outside te scope of your study, is that those who seem to want all the extra security measures the government want to inflict upon us, will often be the very same people telling just how rubbish Brown, Leese, Merry and any other public figure is on a daily basis,but when the issue is security seem to suddenly trust them 100%.

Kelly Bebb (03/12/2009 at 14:33)

Have you got any personal views of your own?

Kelly Bebb (03/12/2009 at 14:58)

Thanks for your comment, however do you have any strong views on the matter personally? So you feel that the Government is right to introduce such security measures?

Andanotherthing, Mcr (03/12/2009 at 22:06)

Citycentre...? Stop being polite.

citycentre, manchester (04/12/2009 at 00:04)

Andanotherthing, Mcr

Am I not always? Its how my mother taught me.

Kelly Bebb "Have you got any personal views of your own? "

Yes, plenty, though not particularly about these machines, the article dosn't really say much, like how effective they may be, what information is stored and what is then done with it. I have commented extensivley on ID cards, creeping government powers, DNA profiles and policing, I think it would be fair to say I am generally sceptical of what government claims it needs to do to keep us safe. Should you want more specific opinions check out what I have said (or wait, I am sure I will have further comments to add).

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