British citizens will soon be able to use facial recognition technology as a form of identification when returning to the UK, with upgrades to e-gates at airports. The new system, referred to as 'contactless borders,' will first be introduced at Birmingham and East Midlands airports in the coming weeks, with plans to roll it out to all UK airports by early next year.
Passengers will still need to carry their passports for check-in and boarding, as the new system will only function for British passport holders initially. Developers plan to extend the technology to other nationalities authorized to use current e-gates, including citizens from the EU, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.
The upgraded system is expected to reduce wait times at e-gates by approximately 25%. Currently, the average processing time is 20-25 seconds, but this can be longer due to user errors. The facial recognition system will work in conjunction with airlines, which will provide a gallery of passport photos of British passengers arriving at UK airports to Border Control.
If a passenger's face cannot be recognized, the e-gate will prompt them to scan their passport. If that also fails, they will be directed to a staffed desk for manual processing. A successful trial run was conducted at Manchester Airport in October of the previous year, with positive feedback from users.
The Civil Aviation Authority reported that UK airports saw a record 61 million passengers in the first quarter of this year. The current e-gate system has been in place since 2008, and children aged eight or older have been able to use them since July 8 of this year. Phil Douglas, the director general of Border Force, noted that the new system aims to enhance border security and allow officers to focus on more complex immigration tasks.