Reuters: London blasts seen boosting passenger screening

“The mass screening of people on the Tube is something that is clearly going to have to be addressed,” Neil Fisher, director of security solutions at high-tech UK firm QinetiQ, told Reuters.

“We have technology now that can address quite a bit of it,” he said.

They certainly do.

Qinetiq: Passenger Security Scanning

Our Passive Millimetre Wave Scanner offers walk-through security scanning. The scanner can detect concealed metals and ceramics. Up to 6 people a minute can be scanned, eliminating time-consuming metal detectors as well as several security guards.

Mixed messages from QiniteQ though:

The Register: Could the ’see through clothes’ scanner stop London terror bombs?

A report last week claiming that QinetiQ’s ’see-through clothes’ scanner is to be be deployed on London’s underground system has been denied by both QinetiQ and Transport for London.

…

Although the original Times article sensationalises the story by suggesting QinetiQ’s millimetre wave imagers could be deployed across the whole of London underground at a cost of, ahem, £150,000 to £2 million per station, at a total of 270 stations, the core of the story appears to be confirmed by the denial, which concedes that QinetiQ has supplied unspecified “equipment” to TfL. Obviously, if TfL is looking at millimetre wave technology, it must be considering where it could be applied.

It should also be noted that Her Majesty’s Government own 56% of QinetiQ (another 31% is owned by war profiteers The Carlyle Group). The company is expected to be floated on the stock exchange soon at a price of arounf £1bn. A nice juicy contract for millimetre wave imagers for Transport for London wouldn’t hurt.