page_title: Airport security
section_title: United Kingdom
hierarchical_section_title: Airport security / Airport security by country / European Union / United Kingdom
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of Terminal 2 at Birmingham International Airport, England, taken from the top level of a multi-storey car park. The runway is seen beyond, with an Air Malta aircraft. Notice the concrete blocks that seal off the road alongside the terminal, for security reasons. This means that passengers and baggage can no longer be put down directly at the terminal. The Birmingham Airport Shuttle Cars run from the front of the airport.
context_page_description: Airport security refers to the techniques and methods used in an attempt to protect passengers, staff, aircraft, and airport property from accidental/malicious harm, crime, terrorism, and other threats.
  Aviation security is a combination of human and material resources to safeguard civil aviation against unlawful interference. Unlawful interference could be acts of terrorism, sabotage, threat to life and property, communication of false threat, bombing, etc.
context_section_description: The Department for Transport (DfT) is the governing authority for airport security in the United Kingdom, with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also responsible for certain security regulatory functions. In September 2004, with the Home Office, DfT started an initiative called the "Multi Agency Threat and Risk Assessment" (MATRA), which was piloted at five of the United Kingdom's major airports — Heathrow, Birmingham, East Midlands Airport, Newcastle and Glasgow. Following successful trials, the scheme has now been rolled out across all 44 airports.
  Since the September 11 attacks in New York, the United Kingdom has been assessed as a high risk country due to its support of the United States both in its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
  From January 7, 2008, travelers are no longer limited to a single piece of carry-on luggage at most of the UK's major airports. Currently, hand luggage is not limited by size or weight by the DfT/CAA, although most airlines do impose their own rules.
  The UK trialed a controversial new method of screening passengers to further improve airport security using backscatter X-ray machines that provide a 360-degree view of a person, as well as "see" under clothes, right down to the skin and bones. They are no longer used and were replaced by millimeter wave scanners which shows any hidden items while not showing the body of the passenger.
caption: Terminal 2 at Birmingham International Airport, England. The row of concrete security barriers makes close approach by vehicles difficult.
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