Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what contingency measures are in place to mitigate delays when eGates are not in use.

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.

The Home Office has a number of contingency arrangements in the event of a single system failure, including technical and business contingency measures.