Heathrow Harry, what utter rubbish about the e-gates. Border staff are definitely not causing queues to increase numbers, (although 40% cut in staffing levels since 2015 hasn’t helped workloads welcome to austerity) if Border Force staff wanted to cause queues they’d work to H&S rules, take their required breaks but the staff don’t as they want to process passengers as quick as possible to get on with the casework that everyday generates.
The reason that the experience passengers get from gates around the world depends on databases that they use. U.K. database is different from Europe, which is different to US which is different to Canada. The gates reject people with similar names so that officers can confirm the persons identity. In U.K. some names are more common ie John Smith and that can mean people with common names having to use the manned desks. The e-gates are just another tool to aid the quicker processing of passengers that aren’t of interest to Border Force. 95% of the rejection at the gates is an automated response that the gates software has decided that forever reason that person or document requires a check by an Officer to confirm that they can be admitted to the U.K.
Please remember Border Force is Law Enforcement, they monitor Sex Offenders, Counter Terrorism, Immigration Crime, Customs Crime, Human Trafficking, Forged & Counterfiet Docs this is on top of the role at the Border to identify wether that person should be admitted under the Immigration Act 71 or wether they require leave to enter. If they require leave to enter are they entitled to leave to enter.