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Vountary iris scanning scheme for selected air travellers

01 June 2004

The UK Home Office has announced a "voluntary" iris scanning scheme for "selected" categories of air travellers - non-EEA nationals who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK (eg: regular travellers, students or those with work permits). The system called "IRIS" (Iris Recognition Immigration System) is to be installed at five UK airports - Birmingham, Gatwick (both terminals), Heathrow (all terminals), Manchester (Terminals 1 and 2) and Stansted. The system run by Sagem SA, will be based on basic technology - those "enrolling" will have "both their eyes filmed using a standard video camera in order to capture their iris patterns" - advanced iris scanning systems will be more sophisticated.


Home Office Press Release
CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY TO MODERNISE UK BORDER CONTROL
Reference: 208/2004 - Date: 15 June 2004 10:16

Cutting edge technology is set to revolutionise the UK’s immigration controls, with the roll-out of a hi-tech iris recognition system to a number of key UK airports, Immigration Minister, Des Browne announced today.

The state-of-the-art system will store and verify the iris patterns of specially selected groups of travellers, giving watertight confirmation of their identity when they arrive in the UK. This will substantially increase security as well as speed their process through immigration control.

The Home Office will roll out the programme over the next year – starting with Heathrow Airport (Terminals Two and Four) and four other airports by summer 2005. It is expected that within five years more than a million people will be registered to use the system.

Mr Browne said:

"More than ninety million people pass through our immigration controls every year. In our era of mass global travel those numbers are set to rise, with increasing numbers of people wanting to visit the UK on holiday, to study and to work. We need to ensure that our controls are robust enough to let in only those with the right to be here, and efficient enough to process legitimate passengers quickly.

"The UK’s border controls are among the most secure in the world, and we are strategically deploying new technologies to further reinforce their integrity. We already use detection equipment along the northern European coastline, preventing would-be illegal immigrants before they set off for the UK. And we are developing biometric technology to further protect our borders – rolling out its use in visas, passports and eventually ID cards. Such advances were unheard of only a only few years ago - now we are exploiting their ability to make our immigration controls ever more secure."

The Home Office has signed a five year contract with Sagem SA to provide the iris recognition system. The Immigration Service will invite certain groups of foreign nationals to take part who have a track record of complying with the UK’s immigration laws – for example because they live permanently in the UK, are regular travellers or are here as work permit holders. All potential participants will be carefully vetted.

The scheme announced today builds on a successful trial at Heathrow Airport in 2002. A joint project by British Airports Authority, the Immigration Service, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways, the trial registered the iris patterns of 200 selected passengers. It demonstrated the potential of the technology to increase border security, as well as being popular with passengers.

Notes for Editors:

1. IRIS will be installed with the support of the airport authorities at the five UK airports with the highest international arrival numbers. Birmingham, Gatwick (both terminals), Heathrow (all terminals), Manchester (Terminals 1 and 2) and Stansted.

2. The system is to be called IRIS (Iris Recognition Immigration System), and is the first major output of the Government’s ‘e-Borders’ programme to engage technology to modernise UK immigration controls. A marketing campaign will be launched at the end of 2004 to