Minister orders Border Force to ‘see me in my office’ after e-gates failure

The 24-hour outage caused long queues at airports across the UK on May 26 and 27.
Aviation minister Baroness Vere joked that Border Force should “see me in my office’ after passport e-gates stopped working during the May half-term holiday (Steve Parsons/PA)
PA Wire
Neil Lancefield6 June 2023
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Aviation minister Baroness Vere joked that Border Force should “see me in my office” after passport e-gates stopped working during the May half-term holiday.

The 24-hour outage caused long queues at airports across the UK on May 26 and 27.

In a light-hearted speech at an event held by the Airport Operators Association in central London on Monday night, Baroness Vere said she takes her job “very seriously” so went on a “quick trip” to Croatia’s Dalmatian coast ahead of the half-term holiday “just to make sure” airports were running smoothly.

Border Force, you can see me in office

Baroness Vere

She told the audience: “I think the aviation sector nailed it. Congratulations.

“Border Force, you can see me in office afterwards.”

The e-gate system, which is overseen by Border Force, can be used by some passengers arriving at UK airports, such as British citizens aged at least 12.

Passports are scanned and facial recognition technology is used to confirm the identity of passengers.

When the e-gates failed, all arrivals needed to have their passports manually checked, causing queues lasting several hours.

The Home Office, which is responsible for Border Force, said the problem was caused by “a technical border system fault”.

UK airports have this year generally performed much better than in spring 2022 when the aviation sector failed to recruit and train enough staff to cope with the spike in demand for travel, leading to widespread cancellations and delays.

Baroness Vere said: “From where we were a year ago, it is so much improved.

“I’m so enormously grateful for everybody who has worked so hard to build this sustainable recovery.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in