Roll-out of border control biometrics

The first contracts for the UK’s new border control biometric technology have already been awarded, with iris recognition systems being the first to be placed with suppliers.

The initial contract is worth £2.8 million and has gone to Sagem, a French security and defence contractor. The two units will be installed at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 building on its completion later this year.

By the end of 2007, these new technologies aim to offer border control police the ability to check the biometric data that will be included in travellers’ documents.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “We are creating a new frontline (e-Borders) with police-like powers focused on securing the UK’s borders against terrorism, illegal immigration and organised crime.”

The new biometric technology is aimed at curbing the tide of illegal immigrants that are coming into the UK. The new technology forms part of a procurement framework that that will conclude with the introduction of the UK’s first ID card.

This new technology comes after the Prime Minster Gordon Brown announced the Government’s national security strategy, which stated that all new visa applications would need biometric data included in them within nine months. Immigrants that attempt to enter the UK from high-risk countries need biometric visas already.

The border control biometric visa system will be in addition to the UK’s ID card scheme that Gordon Brown stated would come into force from 2009. All UK citizens would require an ID card and any foreign nationals coming into the UK for more than six months would also require an ID card from 2008.