British Airports (Hansard, 18 July 2002)

§ Lord Wallace of Saltaire
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What action they have taken to ensure that programmes of modification and improvement now under way at British airports allow for the possibility that the United Kingdom may in the future opt in to the full provisions of the Schengen Convention.

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, British airports plan their facilities on the basis that the United Kingdom will retain its existing system of frontier controls.

§ Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, does the Minister remember that the report published more than two years ago on Britain's Schengen opt-out suggested that it would be reasonable in all future modifications to British airports to take the precautionary approach that at some point the Government might change their mind? Does he recall that there was strong evidence from the British Airports Authority that the costs of doing so at speed if the Government were to change their mind would be considerable and perhaps prohibitive?
Does he accept that, now that the Government have opted back in to most provisions of the Schengen agreement, it is not unlikely that the Government will change their mind during the next few years, and that joined-up government would suggest that modifications now under way to Heathrow, and so on, should have started better to segregate passengers arriving from outside the European Union from those arriving from within the EU?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, the Government would certainly have no objection if the 1390 British Airports Authority or individual airports were to plan their future provision on the basis of the Schengen agreement. But I cannot agree with the noble Lord that we have changed or will change our view. We have not signed the implementing convention of 1990. The Schengen protocol allows us to implement all or part of the Schengen Convention, on the basis of which we have opted in for police and judicial co-operation on crime but out on immigration controls. The frontier protocol enables us to retain our frontiers. That is the current position.

§ Baroness Knight of Collingtree
My Lords, will the Minister accept my gratitude, and take note that, as joining Schengen would force Britain to abolish all its frontier controls, many people will appreciate what he has said today and give him their full support?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, that is the position that the Government took. I am grateful for the words of the noble Baroness.