Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the waiting times at the border at all UK airports that use ePassport gates; what is the difference in waiting times, broken down by each airport; and what comparison they have made of the difference in the waiting times, broken down by each airport, before the ePassport gates were installed and now.

A direct comparison of queue times before and after ePassport Gates installation is not an accurate assessment of improvement given the number of variables involved, including but not limited to increasing number of biometric passports in circulation, changes to the cohorts of passengers able to use the gates, delays to flight schedules and increased number of travellers to the UK.

Recent and previous performance against passenger wait time Service Level Agreements can be found in Border Force Transparency data available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-force-transparency-data

Border Force is committed to ensuring passengers arriving in the UK receive an excellent service. ePassport gates are an efficient means of border clearance for eligible passenger cohorts and allow us to conduct a full range of security checks.

ePassport Gates are part of the long-term vision for the border, making better use of digital technology and greater automation to improve the passenger experience, whilst maintaining security.

There are 264 e-Passport Gates now operational at 23 air and rail terminals including Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels Gare du Mid, and e-Passport Gates usage continues to increase, linked to the increase availability of e-Passports. e-Passport gate usage has increased from 1 Million in 2009 to 61.3 Million for the 12 months to the end of November of 2019