Written question asked by Lord Sheikh (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Adonis (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 March 2010.

Airports: Body Scanners

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what safeguards they will put in place to ensure that proper care and respect for cultural differences are taken into account when using anti-terrorism body scanners.

Answer: The Government have published an interim code of practice for the initial deployment of body scanners. It is available via the Department for Transport website. It will ensure that the implementation and application of body scanners properly respects privacy rights. The department will be launching a full public consultation shortly on the interim code of practice and will consider all representations carefully before preparing a final code of practice later in the year. Extensive safeguards have been developed to ensure passengers’ privacy is respected. Only security-vetted and trained security staff employed by the airport will be able to view the images. Images are viewed remotely from the machine, and are deleted immediately after analysis. Images cannot be recovered at a later date from the machines. In addition individuals may request that their image is viewed by a screener of the same gender.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 2201; 717 c335-6WA
Session: 2009-10
Related items: Airports: Body Scanners
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Aviation Airports Privacy Passengers Security
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk