UK may allow changes to air security checks

LONDON: The transport Secretary, Mr. Philip Hammond, has signalled his willingness to change the regulations on security checks at British airports.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday that, Hammond was responding to senior figures in the airline industry who had backed British Airways Chairman, Martin Broughton‘s attack on measures imposed by the United States.

Broughton said many of the checks were ”completely redundant.”

Hammond said he would be allowing airlines to look at ways of ”easing the passenger experience.”

He said practices such as forcing passengers to take off their shoes should be abandoned and he also questioned why laptop computers needed to be screened separately.

Responding to the BA chairman‘s comments, the former Head, policy, US Department of Homeland Security, Stewart Baker, said practices such as taking shoes off and limiting the amount of liquids taken on board were in place on domestic flights in the US.

However, air security analyst at Jane‘s Information Group, Mr. Chris Yates, said while a lot of measures were in place, they were not applied consistently in all the US airports.

Baker said Broughton was inferring that the UK was a ‘ US poodle‘, but that this was not the case.

He stated, ”It does sound as though he was kind of venting, rather than engaged in a careful analysis. I‘ve sort of learned that when Brits play the ‘poodle card‘, it‘s more emotional than rational and it sounded like he was playing the poodle card.”

Hammond responded to the row by saying the government would give airport operators permission, through changing the regulations, to look at the way they carry out security procedures.

”(They can) do them differently, if they believe that that can reduce the queuing and ease the passenger experience,” he said.

But he said he could not order the US to relax the restrictions on passengers travelling to the states.

He added, ”I have to defend the right of every country to define the security requirements that it places on flights entering its airspace.”

BAA, which operates six British airports including Heathrow and Glasgow, was supportive of Broughton‘s comments.

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