Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of e-passports that do not work at UK airports; and what steps she is taking to help resolve that issue.

It has never been Government practice, for reasons of law enforcement, to comment on operational issues relating to border security and immigration controls. This includes offering commentary on the performance of border systems and of ePassport Gates data specifically.

However, the Hon Member with be pleased to know that the Home Office is making significant investment to improve the underlying technical infrastructure which performs border checks to identify individuals more precisely. This will reduce the number of individuals unable to use the ePassport Gates. These improvements have begun to be introduced, and further improvements are envisaged to identify persons of interest more precisely.