Airports in talks to lift security ban on liquids

The UK government is in discussions with security companies and Britain's airports to lift the ban on liquids being carried in hand luggage as early as next year.

Technology already deployed at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 can automatically detect the presence of liquids in carry-on bags. Now, government scientists are running tests to see if the scanners can be adapted to pick out those that are harmful.

"The technology is there, which will allow these scanners not only to test for liquids but also to determine if those liquids are dangerous or not," said a security industry source. "At the moment, that technology is being tested by the security services and when they are happy that it works, the ban will be lifted."

The aviation industry is keen to see a change in the restrictions, brought in after intelligence experts believed they had foiled a plot to blow up airliners with liquid bombs in August 2006.

Airlines have complained that the rules make the UK's hubs less attractive to passengers. Analysts put the total cost of the liquid bomb plot to the industry at as much as £200m. The hand luggage restrictions dictate that bottles containing more than 100ml of liquid cannot be carried and only one bag is allowed.

BAA, which operates the UK's main airports Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, had to recruit 3,000 extra security staff to cope with the restrictions. It puts the total cost of the measures in the "tens of millions". When you go to airports at the moment, you can see the confusion, with many people still bringing too many liquids.

Four UK airports including Heathrow have bought scanners that will detect dangerous liquids and more are on order. It is believed the Government will not lift the restrictions until all major airports have the new technology.

But The Department of Transport said it took its lead from advice given by the joint intelligence analysis centre. It added that the recent bomb plot court case had proven that potential terrorists were already capable of creating bombs from domestic items.