PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Aviation: Security (19 June 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will commission an assessment of the effect on disabled passengers of the use of detection equipment at airports which generates random false positive alerts giving rise to the need for a full body search when nothing untoward has been detected.

Asked by:
Sir Christopher Chope (Conservative)

Security searches are an inconvenience for all passengers affected, but they are an important part of our security screening at airports to protect passengers from the very real threats we face. Our surveys show that the majority of passengers (91%) think that any inconvenience caused by security screening is acceptable. Our procedures work on the basis that disabled people have the same chance of being selected for a search as anyone else.

Further statistics on air passengers' attitudes to security searches are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-passenger-experience-of-security-screening-2013.

Answered by:
Sir Robert Goodwill (Conservative)
24 June 2014