§ Mrs. Renee Shortasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what percentage of passengers arriving at British airports have their luggage searched; and what percentage are put through a body search; (2) what percentage of cars, coaches and lorries arriving at British ports are searched; and what percentage of passenger arrivals at British ports have their luggage and their person searched.
§ Mr. Hayhoe[pursuant to his reply, 30 April 1984, c. 22]: No records are maintained by Customs and Excise of the percentage of cars, coaches, lorries and passengers' luggage which are searched at British ports and airports.
Body searches of passengers are carried out only in cases of suspicion. Every search of person is recorded locally, but figures showing the overall percentages of passengers searched could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.