UK Borders Bill
1:30 pm
Phil Booth: I do not have a great deal to add to my colleague’s statement but some friends at Privacy International have pointed us to some sources which we will be very happy to submit in paper form to the Committee, including testimony given to the US Chamber of Commerce in 2004 that considered that the US-VISIT scheme would impede legitimate travel and trade and also a survey and analysis by the Santangelo Group on behalf of the industry associations and trade councils within the US that also predicted significant revenue losses and indirect costs.
The scheme has been running for some years and we will be happy to submit a series of articles that has been tracking the progress of the scheme that includes such statements as up to $30 billion having been lost to the US in some form since 2002. It is fair to say thatin this case each individual implementation of a scheme—the technology, the legislation and everything else—will have a different effect in each country.