Full body scaners for Heathrow and Manchester airports may be Illegal

The ­Equalities and Human Rights Commission has warned that the use of body scanners at Heathrow and Manchester Airports may be illegal. The head of the Rights Commission Trevor Phillips, has told the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, that ­serious concerns existed about invasion of passengers privacy and that there was a lack of safeguards to ensure scanners were operated fairly and without discrimination.


The comments could lead to the launch of a high court enquiry, before the scanners are rolled out to all of the airports by the end of this year.The transport department has, without consultation, initiated a temporary code of practice for their use but intends to consult before a final version is produced this year. Directions of the code were that those who refused a full-body scan would be refused boarding without being offered the American alternative of passing through a metal arch detector and having a physical pat-down search.



The commission's legal advice said that while the home secretary told MPs the scanners would be used randomly, the interim code gives no indication of how this will be achieved or monitored. The criteria involved – which may include nationality, origin of the flight or pattern of previous travel – are to remain secret on national security grounds.



A commission spokesman said the absence of safeguards, such as the monitoring of who is being scanned and how, means the authorities are unable to check if anyone is being unfairly selected on the basis of their race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability.He added that it had already been made perfectly clear that those passengers randomly selected for screening would not be chosen because of any personal characteristics or appearance.




The government is presently carrying out an "equalities impact assessment" to establish the legality of the scanning procedure.