NO2ID

Hi, I recently passed through Heathrow T5 from the US on my way to Edinburgh.
I was surprised when I was photographed on entry to T5 and also again before I was allowed on the plane from T5 to Edinburgh.
The G4S 'officer' claimed it was the law and they had to photograph me.
Does anyone know if that's true? I wasn't aware of any new regulation?
I suspect it might be something just for the Olympics.
They got very gnarly pictures of me both times because I didn't look directly at the camera (and just kept telling them I was looking at the camera, rather than outright refusing).
They were also photographing children which I consider very worrying - that doesn't even happen in the USA.

Thanks for any responses in the legality of forcing people to be photographed.
BW
Mike

AFAIK this has been the case for transit passengers since T5 opened.

They're trying to prevent transit passengers swapping boarding passes with other passengers after they've been through airport security.

Originally BAA wanted to fingerprint all T5 passengers for the same reason, but thankfully that was struck down.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/26/3

Every time I've flown recently there has been a passport verification at check-in (does the name match the name on the ticket and does the picture match the ticket holder) as well as at the gate (though that is with the boarding pass) so why the "need" for additional photographs?

...what, you mean that both national and international passengers can mingle in the same shared space? Surely not, that sounds like a security nightmare open to all kinds of baggage and document contamination

mb