New facial recognition technology to be rolled out at Heathrow Airport

In recent weeks the roll out of facial recognition technology passport gates at Gatwick and Manchester Airports have been hailed as an important advancement in waiting time and financial improvements.

Now comes news that London Heathrow Airport will also adopt the new electronic border gates in 2010 with stated aims being to reduce the lengthy processing times at Heathrow’s border control.

The new gates mean that travellers aged 18 and over who possess biometric passports will be able to re-enter the UK using the facial recognition technology that compares their passport picture against a database whilst at the same time cross-referencing the -passport to any blacklists held by the UK Border Agency.

Initial reports suggested that the new gates could be seen as early as January 2010 although the Home Office has denied committing to any concrete date for now.

The gates form part of the larger Electronic Borders (e-Borders) programme that can also scan similar biometric passports from other holders across Europe and comes at an estimated cost of £1.2 billion to the UK government. The new programme will theoretically cover close to 90 percent of all UK-bound travellers according to statistics published by the Control of Immigration report from 2006.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has hailed the new advancements which will allow speedy passage of legitimate travellers at immigration control, thereby also freeing up UKBA officers to focus more time on high risk travellers instead. The technology, Johnson claims, shows that Britain is at the very forefront of border security.