It's now about 15 hours since the UK Border Force EGate system failed once again.

It had done so 10 days earlier and, well, effectively, about quarter to eight last night,

the EGates stopped working.

The Home Office says that they had a large-scale contingency response in six minutes.

And I think what that means is everyone who was possibly around who could check passports was doing so.

But, of course, it was a losing battle initially

because you've got planes arriving every few minutes at London, Heathrow at Gatwick,

it stands did at Luton, Edinburgh, many other airports.

And so queues built up very quickly.

Heathrow, we actually have people kept on board the aircraft for some time typically half an hour

before they were let out most of the people i've spoken to were actually waiting in line for two

hours or more and well guess what they found that public transport should shut down for the night and many of them had to get taxes.

Hotels to the airports, the night buses were all very full because of course you've got a flight which is due in at nine o'clock and you assume you're going to be well clear by 10.

And if it's midnight, well, I'm afraid you're flummoxed so yes the passengers I spoke to

were not particularly impressed by it but I wondered if I could just very quickly remind you why

eGates are so important there's about 300 of them and they're installed at airports right across the

UK as well as at the Euro star rail terminals in continental Europe.

And they are absolutely central to the UK Border Force operation.

Because about three quarters of the people who are coming into the UK will be able to go through them

and that means that three quarters, 75% of all the numbers coming in are effectively automatically

processed, relatively quick for them generally. The actual process, I find, takes about 15 or 20 seconds

and it means that UK border force is able to concentrate. Generally, the actual process I find takes about 15 or 20 seconds.

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