| | The chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Trevor Phillips (pictured), has written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis, expressing the EHRC’s disquiet over the government’s introduction of body scanners at airports in the UK and questioning the policy’s compliance with anti-discrimination legislation and rights to privacy protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Human Rights Act 1998).
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The full letter can be read here and is excerpted below:
‘…in light of the Government's decision to introduce body scanning at Heathrow and Manchester Airports on 1 February 2010 and its intended roll-out to all UK airports by the end of this year, I must repeat the Commission’s concerns about the need to ensure that counter terrorism policies are justifiable under the law and work to enhance, not damage community relations, while reiterating our recognition of the acute safety and security issues at stake.
‘The Commission is particularly concerned by the apparent absence of safeguards to ensure the body scanning system is operated in a lawful, fair and non-discriminatory manner. The Commission also has serious doubts that the decision to roll this system out in all UK airports complies with the law or properly assesses the impact it may have.
‘We are yet to see sufficient evidence that this decision complies with the general or specific equality duties under the Race Relations Act 1976, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.'
‘These duties require a Secretary of State, in the performance of his or her functions, to give “due regard” to both the elimination of unlawful discrimination and the promotion of equality of opportunity and good relations between members of different racial groups.
‘Without careful and formal consideration of the equality implications of this decision, for example through a full equality impact assessment, there is a serious risk that a measure introduced to protect the travelling public will have unintended discriminatory consequences.
‘The Commission is also concerned about the implications of the introduction of body scanners for the right to privacy under in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. While we acknowledge that there is a legitimate aim for this invasion of privacy, which at the present time we are inclined to accept is proportionate, we remain seriously concerned whether the intrusion is in accordance with the law. The government has not made public the selection criteria for body scanning, for national security reasons, which the Commission understands. However, we consider that it is very likely that some criteria, for example, religious dress, destination, nationality or national origin, would also have an unlawful directly or indirectly discriminatory effect.
‘There is also not a proper monitoring mechanism to ensure that this is non-discriminatory in practice. As things stand, there is too little transparency and too much scope for arbitrariness and wrongful discrimination for the Interim Code to be capable of complying with the law.
‘The Commission considers that greater openness on the part of Government is vital to demonstrate fully how it is intending to comply with the law, specifically within the framework of its equalities and human rights duties, and to ensure appropriate accountability and transparency in the roll-out of the use of body scanners to UK airports.’
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