Most Travellers Would Support Border Management Technology

A new survey finds a 64% majority of British travellers would support new technology, at UK's borders, which analyses each passenger by the potential risk they present, if this led to an overall reduction in queues and enhanced security.

Media Coverage: Publication: Contingency Today

More than 200 million people cross the UK border each year. That number is growing with volumes and flows of people and goods across the border expected to continue to rise over the next five years.

In 2011, 70 million people used London Heathrow compared to 60 million ten years before. According to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), UK airports handled 8.6 million (4.1%) more passengers in 2011 than in 2010.

In this scenario, traditional methods of border control will not cope in the long-term and are already proving prohibitively expensive as large numbers of qualified staff are needed to manage border control effectively. This has caused queues to continue to rise, leading to legitimate passenger grievances.

The British public are clamouring for a change of approach. A new survey finds that the majority of British travellers support the introduction of new technology that delivers greater security and efficiency at the UK's borders.

A study of more than 2,000 British adults, carried out by independent online polling firm, YouGov for SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, finds that nearly two-thirds (64%) of British overseas travellers would support the current strict checks at border checking points being enhanced by technology that analyses each passenger by the potential risk they present, if this led to an overall reduction in queues and enhanced security.

The survey also reveals that just 9% of these travellers would oppose trials running at Britain's airports of new technology that assesses the potential level of risk posed by each individual and imposes the appropriate level of security checks based on this risk.

The survey demonstrates that the British public are open to the authorities exploring an alternative to existing blanket checks. These checks, where all passengers are subject to the same rigorous procedures, have resulted in long delays and have not made us any more efficient at identifying illegal immigrants or high-risk individuals.

In contrast, risk profiling, which uses intelligence, data analytics and behavioural modelling to assess the risk individuals pose can actually significantly enhance protection, cutting queues while detecting more high-risk individuals coming into the UK. This is what we saw in last year's borders pilot immigration scheme, which despite the negative publicity, was successful in its primary objective of detecting more high-risk individuals trying to enter the country illegally from Europe.

This kind of profiling is increasingly being deployed around the world – and SAS® is involved in delivering the technology that supports it. The concepts behind profiling are well established in a range of industry sectors, including most notably financial services and banking, where it is used to detect fraud, to decide whether an individual is a suitable candidate for a mortgage or a loan, or to assess whether a specific transaction should go through.

Utilising the same techniques, SAS® is also involved in cargo profiling at borders. The Korea Customs Service (KCS) uses SAS® to implement advanced risk management with a high detection rate, improving the effective inspection of imported goods and detection of illegitimate goods. The SAS® solution has enabled more specific and accurate sorting of illegal cargo, helping to drive up overall detection rates by more than 20 per cent.