Heathrow Airport: Border Control Passenger Safety Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Randerson
Main Page: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Randerson's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(3 years, 3 months ago)
Lords ChamberTo ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to improve the safety of passengers queuing at border control points at Heathrow airport.
My Lords, Heathrow Airport has extensive measures to ensure the safety and well-being of passengers and we have been working closely with it, Border Force and others to facilitate as smooth and safe a journey as possible for all passengers. In addition, Heathrow will shortly begin a trial in which direct flights from red list countries arrive into a dedicated terminal, helping to focus operational capacity and reduce mixing between passengers from red, amber, and green list countries.
My Lords, there have been three-hour queues at Heathrow with passengers crammed together, yet aviation is flying at only 15% of its capacity and Border Force says that it is working at full strength. This is the latest in a catalogue of errors by the Government in their border policy. Can the Minister tell us why the Government did not properly ensure that passengers were separated out at Heathrow from the start? When will they have the additional fully trained Border Force staff to provide a safe and efficient service?
My Lords, I also saw the images circulating last week of queues at Heathrow Airport, and I agree with the noble Baroness that we do not want to see a repeat of those kinds of scenes. However, I do not agree with her analysis. The Managed Quarantine Service has worked extremely well, and I pay tribute to Border Force for its contribution—we have more Border Force staff working today than we did during the 2012 Olympics. It does, unavoidably, take between five and 10 minutes for Border Force personnel to process each passenger; that is an unavoidable bureaucratic burden, but we have taken the necessary steps to ensure safe travel and minimise the circulation of mixed passengers within the terminals.