Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to monitor waiting times for (a) UK and (b) non-UK passport holders to clear the UK Border at (i) Heathrow and (ii) Gatwick Airport.

Border Force measures and monitors wait times at all major UK ports including Heathrow and Gatwick to ensure the flow of legitimate travel into UK.

Border Force is committed to ensuring passengers wait times are kept to a minimum, however this must be balanced with our duty to Border Security, checking 100% of passports and making sure that anyone or anything that might cause harm to the UK is correctly dealt with.

Resource and staffing requirements at every port are continually reviewed by Border Force who work closely with port operators to ensure resources are deployed flexibly as and when they are required.

The latest Border Force transparency data shows that 95% of arrivals to the UK were cleared within the service standard in the second quarter of this year and in July, 90% of passengers surveyed were satisfied with their experience at UK border control. The most recent data is available on Gov.UK; www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-force-transparency-data-q2-2023