§ Mr. GummerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long a wait for passengers to pass through passport checks at London Heathrow he determines as being compatible with the service standards of the Issuing Section Service. [185393]
§ Mr. BrowneI am not familiar with the Issuing Section Service to which the right hon. Member refers. However the UK Immigration Service is committed to clearing bona fide passengers with minimal delay, and has set standards for passenger processing times, which comply with the international standards. These standards, which are embedded in the UK Immigration Service's annual business objectives and are kept under regular review, are to clear:
100 per cent. of non-EEA passengers at 45 minutes;
1266WWith regard to court proceedings, the available information relates to the number of defendants proceeded against for racially aggravated offences and is given in the table. The available data is from 1997 to 2002.
90 per cent. of non-EEA passengers in 30 minutes;
EEA passengers with minimal delay.
The UK Immigration Service currently clear 99 per cent. of non-EEA passengers in less than 45 minutes, and 98 per cent. of non-EEA passengers in less than 30 minutes. Although there is no specific measurement of the time taken to process EEA passengers, close monitoring of passenger flows and effective deployment of staff ensure EEA passengers are cleared with minimal delay.
The UK Immigration Service's performance is also measured independently against the British Airports Authority (BAA) quality of service standards, which includes queuing times. The Immigration Service continues to score well against this measure.