Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the efficiency and effective working of E-passport checking machines at Heathrow Airport.

Mr Robert Goodwill, Minister of State for Immigration: In the last 12 months the number of egates at Heathrow has been significantly increased, rising from 25 to 55 across the 4 terminals, with a further 9 due to go live at T5 in January 2017. In the last 12 months nearly 9 million passengers have used the gates at Heathrow. The gates continue to meet their agreed service level agreements for availability. Efficiencies are derived from the fact passengers using a bank of 5 gates can be monitored by a single officer and by the egates offering a quicker service to passengers through the border. Supplementary measures are also in place to ensure Border Force Security objectives are met.

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