The UK’s Border Agency has confirmed it is scrapping the iris recognition gates which have been in use at some of the country’s main airports since 2004.

The gates will initially be withdrawn from Birmingham and Manchester airports, but are expected to stay in use at Gatwick and Heathrow airports until after the Olympics. 

The system had come in for criticism from some users who complained that it sometimes had problems recognising them. Others said that joining regular passport queues was sometimes quicker than going through the fast-track iris gates.

In a statement to SDW, a UK Border Agency spokesperson said: “We continue to introduce new technology to protect the border while making legitimate travel easier. ePassport gates now operate at 15 of the country’s busiest airport terminals and are available to millions of biometric passport holders.

“We are phasing out iris and will be replacing it with other types of gates that non-EU passengers will be able to use.”