Executive Summary

This consultation paper invites responses from stakeholders on the Government's proposals to make airport security planning, and the funding and activities of the police at airports, more transparent and strategic in nature.

The proposals build on the Independent Review of Airport Policing that was submitted to the Government in July 2006. The Review identified several areas that could be strengthened across the UK through light-touch Government intervention. The Review pointed to the need for clear responsibility for delivering security, and stronger, more open working relationships between security stakeholders. The Review also made clear that policing costs should generally be met by the airport sector. Ministers accepted the broad thrust of these recommendations and we have taken the decision to publish the Review alongside this consultation paper to allow consultees to respond from a fully informed position.

In May 2008 the Government announced its intention to place its airport policing and security planning proposals on a legislative footing as part of the Transport Security Bill. This builds on joint work taken forward by the Department for Transport and the Home Office. A legislative framework is only part of the answer - a comprehensive set of guidance will be published to underpin the new process.

The current legal and regulatory framework, set down by Government, is prescriptive with regards to measures for handling and screening staff, passengers and cargo, focussed on counter-terrorism measures. There is no such framework for addressing wider criminality, nor for identifying the wider police role in supporting the aviation security regime at UK airports.

Airports present a distinct and complex set of security challenges that need to be addressed through robust consultation and co-operation between the airport operator, the police, and other security stakeholders. The new security planning process set out in this document addresses this requirement. The consultation also sets out the intention that all UK airport operators should pay for agreed levels of dedicated policing at their airports.

The new approach has five distinct stages:

• risk assessment: inter-agency analysis of threat and risk posed by terrorism and other criminal activity - building on the work of existing Multi-Agency Threat and Risk Assessment (MATRA) groups at most airports
• collective responsibility: senior, empowered stakeholders taking forward actions to enhance security with clear lines of individual accountability
• Airport Security Plans: a forward-looking plan that addresses what needs to be done and by whom
• police funding: appropriate policing levels targeted at mitigating threats to the airport, agreed and paid for by the airport operator
• dispute resolution: a robust, flexible process for unlocking disputes in cases where parties cannot agree.

The new proposals will apply to all sixty-three airports in the UK that are currently subject to the National Aviation Security Programme, and associated directions made under the Aviation Security Act 1982. Generally, this includes airports handling commercial flights but not those small aerodromes that only deal with private aircraft. All stakeholders at an aerodrome will have some involvement in carrying out security planning, with the airport operator and police having the most significant role.

Guidance to support the new process will be extensive, addressing all of the stages of the new framework as set out in section 6 of this document. In addition, a new common threat assessment will be provided to risk assessment groups to provide a common understanding of threat.

An impact assessment is being published alongside this document on which the Government is also seeking views.

How to respond

The consultation period runs from 16 July 2008 to 8 October 2008. Please ensure that your response reaches us by 5pm on the closing date.

If you would like further copies of this consultation document it can be found at www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/airportplanning/. Please send consultation responses, preferably by email to airportpolicing@dft.gsi.gov.uk or by post to:

Steve Bragg
Aviation Security Division
Department for Transport
zone 5/14
Southside
105 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6DT

This consultation has been produced in accordance with principles of the Government's "Code of Practice on Consultation", a copy of the consultation criteria are included on p35 of this document.

Please state whether you are responding as an individual, individual organisation or group of organisations. If responding on behalf of an organisation please make it clear who the organisation represents, and where applicable, how the views of members were assembled. A form is available at Annex A to record your response.

A list of those consulted can be found on p34. Elements of your consultation response may need to be shared with colleagues in the Department for Transport and the Home Office, and/or be published in a summary of consultation responses. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will assume you are content for us to do this, and that, if you are replying by email, your consent overrides any confidentiality disclaimer that is generated by your organisation's IT system, unless you specifically include a request to the contrary in the main text of your submission to us.

According to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, all information contained in your response to this consultation may be subject to publication or disclosure. This may include personal information such as your name and address. If you would like your response (or part thereof) or your name and address to remain confidential, you should explain why confidentiality is necessary. Your request will be granted only if it is consistent with Freedom of Information obligations.