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Home Office

Answer

Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what technical surveillance equipment is installed at ports of entry to the UK; and how many sniffer dogs are deployed at ports of entry. [213185] Mr. Browne: [holding answer 1 February 2005]: A range of surveillance equipment is installed at UK ports of entry. This includes CCTV cameras to record both arriving and departing passengers and New Detection Technology (NDT) to detect clandestine entrants. The location of this equipment is as follows: The Immigration Service operates cameras at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. In addition to the systems operated solely by the Immigration Service access is provided at other locations by the port operators to their local systems. A combination of NDT, including Passive Millimetric Wave Imagers, Heart Beat Detectors, Gamma Ray Scanner and CO2 probes are deployed at various locations including Calais, Coquelles, Dunkirk, Ostend, Zeebrugge and Vlissingen. This technology is either operated by the port authority, the carrying company or by UK immigration staff. CO2 probes are also deployed at various UK locations and in addition the Mobile Freight Search Team, deploying both CO2 probes and body detection dogs covers a variety of United Kingdom Ports. The team is intelligence led and maintains the flexibility to respond to threats at other ports. Details of the deployment of NOT and the Mobile Freight Search Team cannot be released, as this would compromise Border Control operations. The UK Immigration Service currently has eight body detection dogs and they are deployed at both juxtaposed locations and in the UK.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

430 c1150-1W; 213185

Session

2004-05

Subjects

CCTV Airports ICT Dogs Immigration Undocumented migrants Large goods vehicles Equipment Electronic equipment Ports Surveillance

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk