To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) effect on time taken for passengers to pass through security of the use of different types of scanners used to detect liquids. (321187)

The Department for Transport has been working with the European Civil Aviation Conference and other international partners to test the effectiveness of liquid screening technologies and final results will be available by the end of the year.

The Department has also undertaken several studies on the time taken for passengers to pass through liquid detection systems, the results of which have been used to define options for the deployment of liquid detection machines and also to guide manufacturers on how the performance of the machines might be improved.