Is everyone ready for the EES?

The planned start for the EU’s Entry-Exit System (EES) this winter has all the hallmarks of another pinch point for cross-channel services.

The new IT system has already been plagued with delays, but the slated start for the scheme is now 10 November. My concern is that, despite the years we have known about it, the travelling public has no idea what’s on its way when they take a holiday or an express coach to Paris.

To be fair, the EES is an attempt to speed up the border process for everyone, without compromising security. It begins with passengers registering on the system with biometrics – fingerprints and facial scans, I believe. Once they have been done, ensuing trips across the sea are simpler for three years, passing through the gate in a similar way to a digital passport gate.

The problem will be that first ‘registration,’ and the time each one takes at Dover, Hull, or Newcastle. A ‘soft start’ in November – when the numbers travelling will be low – doesn’t really help, other than to bed in the electronics and process. From Easter 2025, there will still be a deluge of coach passengers to fingerprint and scan for the first time.

While I can see that the cost would be considerable, it seems to me that it would make sense to collect the biometrics before coaches arrive at the ferryports. There are seven passport offices in the UK; surely installing the system at them and offering EES registration ahead of travelling would make better sense, even if to only the proportion of travellers who can get to the passport offices?

I know that the UK’s coach tour operators will be well prepared for this, and will forewarn customers of what awaits them at the ferry. But I’d bet a tenner that if I spoke to 100 folk in the street, almost none of them will have a clue what the EES is and what it entails. Maybe the government has a huge and expensive information campaign planned in autumn but, on past performance, I suspect the first most people will know about EES is when they read the ‘Travel chaos’ headlines next Easter…