Pat Dollard | Young Americans

British Airways planes at Heathrow

Oh, bother!

Airports are at increasing risk from an “internal terror attack” because of lax security arrangements, according to an official report.

By Richard Edwards - (Telegraph UK)

It is feared that hundreds of foreigners are being allowed to work in high security parts of Britain’s airports without passing proper criminal record checks.

Despite warnings that terrorists have tried to place sleepers in jobs “airside” in terminals, no attempt has been made to check whether foreign workers have committed any offences abroad.

A Government-commissioned report today urged for foreign criminal record checks to be made compulsory for airport workers to combat the threat to security. But it called only for new staff to be checked and not those already in post.

The paper, written by former civil servant Stephen Boys Smith, warned that the greatest threat of terrorism in future may be from “internal attack” and added that the “threat is varied and unpredictable.” It said that “long term systemic changes” are needed to combat the threat from within.

There are an estimated 200,000 staff in the “airside” parts of airports employed in shops, cafes or as cleaners in the departure lounge. Others may be employed as baggage handlers, security guards or driving buses between aircraft and the terminal.

The vetting process - using a criminal records check (CRC) - assesses workers only for crimes committed in Britain. Foreign workers - arriving from inside or outside the European Union - are not checked in their country of origin.

This means that someone with a conviction for firearms or explosives offences committed abroad could, for example, take a job loading bags on to aircraft at Heathrow, Gatwick or any other airport, provided they had committed no crimes here.

The official report, published today, said: “The Department for Transport, in consultation with the industry, should introduce a requirement to obtain foreign CRCs or the nearest equivalent information in cases where CRCs are compulsory to the UK.”

It added: “In recent years the Government and the transport industry have responded decisively to the terrorist threat, which has been one of external rather than internal attack.

“As these measures become more effective so the future threat may increasingly come from the insider rather than passengers or members of the public. It is right to consider how to be ready for this.

“Personnel security ought in future to receive much greater attention than it now does, both on the part of the Department for Transport and in the industry, building on the measures already in place.”

However he added that the department should take into account “the need for risk assessment” and that “it would not be unreasonable to decide to proceed only with new staff and not those already in posts.”

Ministers ordered a review of airport security after Samina Malik - the “lyrical terrorist” - was found to have been working in the airside branch of WH Smith at Heathrow. The 24-year-old had her conviction quashed last month for writing poems about beheadings.

Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, said the report acknowledged the effectiveness of the UK transport security regime but pointed out that the more effectively the security regime mitigates external threats the more likely it becomes that terrorists will look for vulnerabilities elsewhere.