Bodyscan airport security screening in weeks

PASSENGERS could face having to pass through full bodyscanners at airports within weeks after plans to introduce them were brought forward by the government.

Gordon Brown pre-empted his own security review yesterday by announcing that introduction of the devices would be brought forward.

And just hours after Mr Brown's surprise announcement, BAA – which runs six UK airports including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen – said the technology would be installed "as soon as possible".

The beefed-up measures follow the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a plane in Detroit.

But their introduction is likely to lead to lengthy delays for passengers as each machine scans three to four people a minute.

Last night, questions were also raised over whether enough scanners would be available to roll out the introduction as quickly as the Prime Minister had hoped.

Alongside bodyscanners, airports are expected to bring in more sniffer dogs and increase their use of passenger profiling.

Hand luggage is also expected to be swabbed for explosive traces, and passengers could be searched again just before boarding.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Brown said the 100,000 scanners were "already ordered" and expected to be introduced within weeks.

He accepted there was no way to be certain the devices would be "100 per cent" effective.

But he added: "We have found that there is a new form of explosive that is not being identified by ordinary machines. We have got to go further. Our first duty is to the security of the people of this country."

The Prime Minister said he hoped the new arrangements would not cause too much delay for passengers, adding: "I hope we will find a way of doing this in a more sophisticated way. It will be introduced gradually."

Scanners will initially operate alongside metal detectors, and be used for all flights in and out of Britain.

A BAA spokesman said: "Now that the government has given the go-ahead, we will introduce full bodyscanners as soon as is practical. It is our view that a combination of technology, intelligence and passenger profiling will help build a more robust defence against the unpredictable and changing nature of the terrorist threat to aviation."

The spokesman was unable to say when the scanners would be introduced in the company's airports north of the Border, but it planned to bring them in first at Heathrow.

The move follows a call from Allan Burnett, head of counter-terrorism for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, that the scanners should be introduced immediately.

He told The Scotsman last week: "At the end of the day, the terrorists will exploit any gap in the security system, and it appears this individual (the Detroit bomber] has been able to get explosives on to an airplane, which is obviously very worrying.

"Regrettably, part of the solution to that could well now be the fact that we have all got to go through full bodyscanners. This has all sorts of implications about invading people's privacy, but that has to be balanced against the safety of the public.

"We have got to try and stay a step ahead of the terrorists, rather than be a step behind."

But others have questioned whether the scanners could be sensitive enough to pick up traces of all explosives. Ben Wallace, a Tory MP and former MSP, was sceptical about the devices, saying Mr Brown was too vague about which sort of technology he wanted to introduce.

Mr Wallace was involved in the government's former defence firm Qinetiq's testing of the scanner before he came to Parliament. Of that, he said: "It failed to pick up things such as plastics and chemicals. Given that these were integral to the major recent bomb plots, it is doubtful they would have averted an attack."

Mr Wallace added that the scanners would take "years rather than weeks" to introduce.

"The US has just 19 across all its airports in use. There is no major factory pumping out enough from their production lines at present."

He added: "This is more about Gordon Brown's headlines than Britain's safety".

A row also erupted over the government's response to the failed Detroit airliner plot, with the Tories accusing the Prime Minister of playing politics with public safety.

Downing Street issued a statement saying Mr Brown and US president Barack Obama had agreed, in a phone call, a joint fund for a counter-terrorism unit in Yemen. But the White House indicated that no such phone call had taken place and that the conversation had been at official level.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister conceded it was a re-announcement of an earlier measure and that he had not spoken to Mr Obama in person.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling accused No.10 of "exaggeration and spin". He added: "For a Prime Minister to play politics with the issue of terrorism is a disgrace."