Airport vetting comes under fire

Gatwick has 28,000 staff who must all be checked

Hundreds of security staff could be among thousands of workers at Gatwick Airport who have not yet been checked for terrorist links.

New government rules which came into force at the beginning of August require all airport staff to have stringent checks made into their backgrounds.

But so far only a small percentage of the checks - which take up to six weeks to process - have been completed, BBC South East has learnt.

A Scottish firm, called Disclosure, is responsible for vetting all 200,000 airport workers in the UK for criminal records and links to terrorist organisations.

Basic vetting

The government wants the vetting of Gatwick's 28,000 staff to be completed by July 2004.

But until then, many of the airport's security staff will be among those working without having been checked.

British Airports Authority (BAA), which runs Gatwick, told BBC South East no security staff who had not been checked were being allowed "airside" without being searched.

All staff applying for a job underwent a basic security vetting before beginning work, BAA said.

We've been told by several sources now that Islamist terrorists are particularly looking at airports as being a soft touch MP Patrick Mercer, shadow minister for Homeland Security

And workers who had not yet undergone the higher level of checks were supervised at all times on a one-to-one basis.

But Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, shadow minister for Homeland Security, said the government had let the public down.

He said: "We've been told by several sources now that Islamist terrorists are particularly looking at airports as being a soft touch - an easy way to attack the infrastructure of this country.

"Therefore our security has got to be pretty good.

"The government has said that all of these people will be checked before they are actually put on duty at airports."

Frank Minal, of the GMB union, which represents 1,500 staff at Gatwick, said the new legislation could put some people who had declared relatively minor offences at risk of losing their jobs.

He said: "It's critical to improve security but unfortunately the new government legislation goes too far and it has implications for people who have been long-term staff at the airport."