Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that sufficient resources are in place to enable the processing of references and security checks for (a) airport security officers and (b) airside roles.

We are engaging with the aviation industry and are looking for ways to help the industry to recover quickly as we emerge from the COVID pandemic and travel restarts. Security continues to be paramount and we will not allow people to work airside when they have not been subject to the appropriate enquiries. The travelling public must have confidence that appropriate security measures are in place at airports. They would expect nothing less of government.

There are two categories of checks. The first are industry security checks. These include checks on an individual’s employment and education history over five years. These checks are the responsibility of the industry – they can take time and we continue to engage with them to understand any challenges. The second category are checks by Government. These are being processed in a timely manner. There are no delays, and the aviation industry is fully aware of the time these important checks take.