Airport security 'loophole' warning

Security has been increased at UK airports

Security staff working in the UK's biggest airports are working in sensitive areas without full security clearance, despite the increased threat in the wake of the US terror attacks.

Responsibility for searching passengers, screening luggage and searching aircraft is being handled by individuals before compulsory government counter-terrorist checks (CTC) have been completed.

Securicor ADI, which supplies security staff to the major airports, says rules allow staff to be placed in key jobs before they have passed the checks, as long as they are supervised by people with CTC clearance.

It is vitally important that we now tighten up those loopholes

Don Foster
Lib Dem MP

The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), which is responsible for airport security, has said it will look into the matter.

A spokesman for Securicor ADI said it took aviation security and staff screening extremely seriously and complied with all DTLR security guidelines.

"The DTLR and our airline partners regularly review Securicor ADI at all the UK airport locations at which it operates," he said.

Inquiry calls

"We continue to have nothing but positive feedback on our performance."

But senior MPs have called for an urgent inquiry and for an immediate change to regulations governing airport security staff.

The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Don Foster, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that loopholes needed to be tightened.

He said: "To discover there are a number of people who are working in very sensitive areas where they can handle the baggage that goes onto planes, indeed have access to the planes themselves, without having these counter-terrorist checks is very worrying indeed.

Fundamental rethink

"It is vitally important that we now tighten up those loopholes.

"We cannot simply say that if they have not had the checks, as long as they are supervised all is well. Supervision can never be 100%."

The president of the International Federation of Airline Pilots Association, Captain Ted Murphy, said people working in airports should have the appropriate security clearances.

But he said vetting staff was not among the problems to have arisen since the US terror attacks.

He told the Today programme: "On 11 September the security system worked as it was supposed to have work.

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"It was the fundamental design and philosophy of security and the training of people that actually failed.

"We have to go back and look at everything. We have to have a fundamental rethink of aviation security.

"This is happening at the moment. Everyone involved in aviation is having another look at things."

Checks on job applicants from the UK can be completed quickly, but can take up to nine months for people from certain countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The UK airports operator, BAA, told BBC News Online that it was concerned by the reports but did not have a direct contract with Securicor ADI.

"They are employed by the airlines," said a spokesman.