No UK passport checks on departures
Passengers leaving UK airports do not have their passports checked by security officials
When asked why, a BAA security official at Gatwick airport said: "Only the airlines check passports against boarding cards."
The Department for Transport told Contingency Today earlier this month - see article in this issue, Heathrow Passenger Checks: Time to Get Smarter and Faster - that it had issued guidance and advice for airports to work with local police to respond as appropriate, "It is up to airports as to whether they maintain them, in consultation with local police."
Also earlier this month, the head of Interpol, Richard Noble, lambasted the UK for its failure to systematically check passports against its global database of stolen passports, "which poses the single greatest terrorist threat to the entire world."
By contrast, departures at French airports are checked by state security officials.
