[holding answer 14 December 2009]: The e-Borders programme formally commenced in May 2009 and the current figure (when annualised) shows that we are now tracking over 100 million passenger movements through the UK border. This represents 45 to 50 per cent. of all passenger movements into and out of the UK (pending formal verification by statisticians).
Percentage figures for passenger movements were not recorded during the period in question, however the following tables show total numbers of passenger movements tracked for each month over the years 2007-09. These include the figures prior to May 2009, when the pilot project (Semaphore) was under development and testing.
Total passenger movements January 1,664,301 February 1,365,681 March 1,546,419 April 1,667,886 May 2,168,559 June 1,970,614 July 2,134,620 August 2,971,664 September 2,363,670 October 3,047,213 November 2,180,352 December 2,354,641 Total 25,435,620
Total passenger movements January 2,795,104 February 2,286,904 March 2,585,127 April 3,276,999 May 2,587,554 June 2,838,955 July 3,875,956 August 3,101,125 September 2,706,082 October 3,110,224 November 2,110,082 December 2,822,786 Total 34,096,898
Total passenger movements January 1,970,860 February 1,930,528 March 3,213,046 April 2,960,390 May1 4,562,469 June 6,346,031 July 7,271,862 August 9,770,483 September 7,340,892 October 7,029,099 November 7,348,671 December 6,504,617 Total 66,248948 1 e-Borders went live on 15 May 2009.
The Government have committed to a full consultation period on the introduction of an Authority To Carry (ATC) scheme. This will be in advance of introducing regulations for approval, by each House of Parliament, on how any scheme would operate. No decisions have been made as to when this might take place.
In 2011, as part of the wider rollout of e-Borders, the capability to support a manual ATC process is expected to be delivered.