Terrorists free to use ferries ‘to plot attacks on mainland’

Ex-Home Office adviser claims police receive ‘incomplete’ lists

FERRY companies are providing “incomplete and unreliable” details of passengers travelling into Scotland from Northern Ireland, leaving the services at risk from potential bombers, according to a former government terrorism adviser.

David Anderson, QC, who until this month reviewed legislation aimed at preventing attacks for the Home Secretary, said the threat of terrorists using the ferries is real and substantiated.

He said officers at Loch Ryan in Cairnryan, near Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway, which is run by Stena Line, told him passenger information from ferry companies could not be relied on.

Since 2014 the terror threat in Scotland has been “severe”, with an attack highly likely.

The barrister wrote in a report: “The threat of terrorists crossing from Northern Ireland to Scotland is a real and substantiated one.

“The Canary Wharf truck bomb of 1996, manufactured by the IRA in South Armagh, killed two people, injured more than 100 and caused £150 million of damage.

“It was transported from Larne to Stranraer on a Stena Lines ferry, then driven to London.”

That attack was before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. which cemented the peace process.

Police Scotland this month launched a campaign urging the public to help defeat terrorism.

Mr Anderson, who left office at the start of the month, said passenger lists for ferries connecting Belfast and Larne in County Antrim to Scotland were incomplete and unreliable, warning port security had been impaired by shortcomings.

“On my visits in 2015/16 to the seaports of Kent and to Cairnryan and Loch Ryan in the south-west of Scotland, the common and strongly expressed refrain from ports officers on the ground was that they could do their jobs more effectively if they had better advance information about passengers arriving (and departing) by sea.”

Police Scotland said: “While there is a distinction between the type of passenger information available at a ferry port compared to an international airport, officers from Police Scotland’s Border Policing Command work closely with operators at the respective ferry ports to ensure this is a safe environment for passengers who travel as well as the safety and security of communities.”

In January, MPs expressed concerns about plans to stop bag and body searches of people boarding planes at rural airports for Glasgow.

Stena Line spokesman said: “Stena Line has a close working relationship with Police Scotland and the PSNI and both forces have a surveillance presence at its ports in Cairnryan and Belfast.

“Stena Line is in regular contact with both forces in relation to passenger travel information between both countries and is fully compliant with all statutory requirements.”