Family car with 10 minutes could be stranded on UK border

Passengers crossing the Channel could see post-Brexit border delays increase from May, with a family car holding for 10 minutes if the EU goes ahead with a planned biometric entry system, the Port of Dover warned.

The entry-exit system EES is due to start in May 2023 and will require all non-nationals to register their fingerprints and be photographed before entering the EU.

The additional requirements are likely to add up to 10 minutes for a family of five in a vehicle on their first trip after EES is introduced, compared to 45 to 90 seconds for border checks today, according to Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, Britain's main point of entry to Europe.

Bannister said the proposed system, which will apply at all border crossings around the continent, could be implemented easily at airports, as passengers already queue for passport control and biometric checks in some countries. He said that the port had received no technical detail, zero, for a ferry terminal that processes carloads of passengers on a dark stormy night. As currently designed, the scheme requires initial biometric registration to be done at the border, under the supervision of EU border police. Bannister said that the most time-consuming part of the process would be the most time-consuming part of the process, making the implementation of EES a threat to national trade resilience, regional traffic management and local air quality. While discussions are ongoing, Bannister said that Dover did not have a solution.

Port capacity depends on the rapid throughput of traffic and the cumulative border delays could lead to long tailbacks on motorways around Dover on implementation.

Logistics UK warned of huge queues or the need for new costly mitigation measures if lorry drivers were forced to leave their cabs for biometric checks.

There are hopes that the EU may delay the scheme, after it was postponing the introduction of the parallel European Travel Information and Authorisation System Etias from May 2023 to November 2023. UK holidaymakers and other non-EU nationals will have to pay €7 for a two-year permit to enter, similar to the Esta requirement in the US.

In a letter to the Commons Transport Select Committee, the chief executive of Eurostar told the Commons transport select committee that existing post-Brexit checks, including the stamping of UK passports, have reduced the capacity of the border by 30%. Jacques Damas warned that problems were not abating and said that the uncertainty hangs over us for the cross-Channel train service.