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Written question asked by James Plaskitt (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 May 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 8 May 2009. It was answered by Phil Woolas (Labour) on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.


Borders: Security

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many IRIS machines are installed at UK borders; how many were working throughout the first three months of 2009; how many instances of equipment failure have been recorded since the installation of these machines; and how many people have registered on the IRIS system.
Answer

There are 12 IRIS machines in operation at 10 airport terminals: Heathrow terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; Manchester terminals 1 and 2; Birmingham terminal 1 and Gatwick North and South.The recorded barrier availability figures for the first three months of 2009 are:

Percentage availability
January 97.31
February 98.02
March 98.90

It is not possible to isolate the number of instances of equipment failure from other faults. However, between January 2008 and March 2009, the overall availability of the IRIS system has been 95.36 per cent.The number of passenger crossings has now reached the 2 million milestone. To date, 299,975 people have enrolled on the IRIS system.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
492 c1459-60W; 274297
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Borders Security
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk