Passengers booked on one of two flights out of Heathrow will be able to skip queues if they hand over fingerprint and other biometric data.

The trial only lasts until 31 January and only includes two flights out of Heathrow - one to Hong Kong and the other to Dubai. It is only open to residents of the European Economic Area and applicants to the scheme will need UK background checks.

Although the scheme officially launches today, and won't be actually working from Dubai until 11 December, our security expert John Lettice got early wind of it. His story and analysis is here. ®