§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list separately all (a) designated and (b) non-designated ports of entry in the United Kingdom; what are the main criteria he uses for designating a port of entry; and what are the primary differences in practice between designated and undesignated ports.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe ports of entry designated under the Immigration (Port of Entry) (Amendment) Order 1979 are:
Seaports and Hoverports
Dover Plymouth Felixstowe Portsmouth Folkestone Ramsgate Hoverport Harwich Sheerness Hull Southampton London Tyne Newhaven Airports Aberdeen Liverpool Belfast Luton Birmingham Lydd (Ferryfield) Bournemouth (Hurn) Tees-side Bristol Manchester Cardiff (Wales) Newcastle (Woolsington) East Midlands Norwich Edinburgh (Turnhouse) Prestwick Gatwick-London Southampton Glasgow Southend Heathrow-London Stansted-London All other ports are undesignated.
Ports are considered for designation when it has been demonstrated that scheduled services carrying substantial numbers of passengers subject to immigration control arrive at the port, or, in the case of airports, are diversion airports.
The main difference in practice between designated and undesignated ports is that at the latter carriers must obtain the permission of the Secretary of State to operate services into the port unless, as provided under paragraph 26(1) of schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971, the owners or agents have reasonable cause to believe that all disembarking passengers are British citizens.
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§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passengers, in total and by each port of entry, embarked and disembarked through undesignated ports of entry in each of the last three years; and if he is currently considering designating any further ports of entry.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe information is not available to answer the first part of the question. The answer to the second part is no.