08/05/08
Airport staff avoid crime checks, BBC news reports.

The BBC's Newsnight has discovered one week ago that foreign workers employed airside at UK airports do not have to undergo full mandatory criminal records checks.

Newnight's Jeremy Paxman conducts a heated interview of aviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick over Heathrow's airside screening failures.
"Since 2003, all staff have been checked against UK criminal records, but offences abroad are not covered. A review of security due to report in the summer would consider new measures. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, governments across the world pledged to make airports more secure. In the UK , the government introduced mandatory criminal records checks for all staff working airside. But Newsnight has discovered a serious loophole in the legislation. The list of offences covered by a Criminal Records Check is comprehensive. Anyone who has an unspent conviction for anything from theft or criminal damage to murder or terrorism would be refused a pass airside - known as the restricted zone. But that is not true if those crimes were carried out abroad as the Criminal Records Check only covers offences which take place in the UK."

Click above to view the heated interview of Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick on BBC's Newsnights