Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of (a) the effect of new covid-19 related checks on people arriving in the UK on the length of queues in (i) airports and (ii) seaports and (b) the effect of those queues on the risk of covid-19 contagion.

Border Force continue to monitor performance closely and this includes passenger queues.? Service level agreements are set to ensure 95% of arriving passengers clear passport control within 25 minutes for arrivals from the European Union and 45 minutes for the rest of the world. Passengers arriving in the UK continue to be cleared in line with these agreements.

Border Force operations at ports are conducted in line with social distancing guidance as set out by the relevant Public Health bodies, although port operators are more widely responsible for compliance across their estate.

Border Force staff in ports will be able to respond flexibly in the volume of checks conducted if there is a risk of congestion causing public health concerns.

Border Force officers complete spot checks to ensure relevant biometric information matches that presented in the passport (or travel document) and

other details appear to be credible.