31 July 2007

Home Office to roll out biometric technology to UK borders

Ian Grant, Computer Weekly

The government is rolling out a multi-million pound programme to use biometric technology to catch illegal immigrants and others undesirables at UK borders. But it has postponed a framework procurement programme for a national identity card.

The first contract for iris recognition equipment, worth £2.8m, has gone to French defence and security equipment supplier Sagem. Two units will be installed at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5, and more may be installed at other entry points, the Home Office said.

By the end of 2007 frontline staff at all major ports will be able to check biometric data in travel documents against the passenger presenting the document, it said.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "We are creating a new frontline (e-Borders) with police-like powers focused on securing the UK's borders against terrorism, illegal immigration and organised crime."

The Home Office said no new money will be raised to implement the system. "Our new visa charging arrangements give us the financial flexibility to make these commitments," it said.

e-Borders will help give effect to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's national security strategy announced last week.

The PM said all visa applicants will need biometric visas within nine months. Immigrants from high-risk countries already need biometric visas.

Mr Brown said UK citizens would carry biometric ID cards from 2009 and foreign nationals coming to the UK for more than six months will need a biometric ID from the end of 2008. This would "prevent people already in the country using multiple identities for terrorist, criminal or other purposes", he said.

However, James Hall, head of the Identity and Passport Service, said government was not yet moving forward on a tender to run a procurement programme for the national ID card. The tender was issued in April and closed at the end of June.

"We had hoped to have started by now, but the time is not right," he said. Hall added he did not have a time scale for when there would be further movement on the contract.

The e-Border project is a follow-on from the miSense project to use biometrics and document scanners to authenticate passengers and control their movements that ended earlier this year.

Now implemented at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, it has led to 1,000 arrests for different offences, the government said.

Immigration authorities recorded 20 million passenger movements in and out of the UK in 2006. This led to 12,000 individuals being flagged for further checks and the subsequent arrests.

The new technology lets immigration staff scan biometric data in new e-passports. This will give them more confidence about the identity of people entering the UK, while allowing fraud and forgery checks to be undertaken quickly and securely, the government claimed.

The new equipment includes a portable iris recognition immigration system (IRIS), for which over 100,000 travellers have enrolled using demonstration systems, fingerprinting and passport scanning technology.

This article first appeared on the web-site of Computer Weekly, at http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/07/31/225918/home-office-to-roll-out-biometric-technology-to-uk-borders.htm. © Reed Business Information 2007.

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