Another pretty mess. Brown's gang try their hand at running - er - a 'party' in a brewery
Here’s another pretty mess. It’s today’s fourth! The government hasn’t the faintest idea about running anything - including the proverbial ‘p*** u* in a brewery’
Having said that, if we are to have secure borders this will have to happen and commercial operators will just have to operate the scheme - whatever it turns out to be. The airlines do it so the trains and ferries must do it too.
This, though, is typical Brown unjoined-up government. Promise to do something; set a target and worry about hgow to do it laster. The usual outcome is that it doesn’t get done at all. Wanna bet?
Christina
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1.7.09
E-borders plan 'could breach EU law'
The Government's flagship e-borders programme is in disarray and could breach EU law, major transport operators said.
The £750 million programme to collect electronic records of everyone who enters and leaves the UK will also miss Home Office deadlines, they said.
Ferry, air and rail firms lined up to criticise the scheme at a meeting of the Home Affairs Committee of MPs.
Eurostar told the committee the firm was "extremely concerned" that the scheme would cause significant delays.
Tim Reardon from the Chamber of Shipping, warned there was "no prospect" of the scheme going live at the end of next year for ferry passengers.
He said companies were yet to find a way of scanning the passports of all passengers without causing "colossal queues" at Channel ports.
Trials showed taking the data could nearly double check-in times for the 20million passengers who cross the Channel every year.
Firms also fear that by taking passport data they may breach French and Belgian law which states only law enforcement officials can do so.
Bulk transfer of passenger data could also breach EU data protection rules, he said.
Requiring passengers to provide the information could fall foul of the right to free movement enshrined in EU treaties.
He said: "No practicable method of capturing ferry passengers' passport data has yet been identified - and in the absence of a defined process, no work has been done to develop a system to support it.
"Progress is effectively now suspended pending resolution of the legal questions which will determine what is or is not permitted.
"There is no prospect of e-borders going live in relation to ferry traffic, as the UKBA contends it will, by the end of next year."
E-borders, which is due to be fully in force by 2014, is aimed at tackling terrorism, crime and illegal immigration and allows passenger details to be checked against watch lists.
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