Government urged to take up EU passenger information system

The government should opt in to a proposed EU directive setting up a pan-European advance passenger information data system despite privacy fears, a Lords Committee has urged.

The committee also entreated the government to press for the draft directive to be extended to cover intra-community travel as well as flights into and out of the EU.

The proposal has been criticised by the European data protection supervisor because the benefits of collecting data about innocent travellers has not been demonstrated. The EU Parliament has also criticised it on the grounds of invasion of privacy, inadequate data protection and lack of proof of need.

But the Lords European Union Committee issued a report urging the UK to opt in and seek improvements so as to benefit from the collection of data by other member states, provided the directive did not prevent the UK screening air travellers from other member states. It also called for a further debate in the Lords.

The report said the committee had "no hesitation" in accepting Home Office claims that the Passenger Name Record data is valuable for the prevention and detection of serious crime and terrorism.