The least they could do is an online GAR website like this one
http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/portsunit/garform.asp
Any half good web designer could knock this up in a few days from scratch, and have the server printing off the form on some printer on the internal network.
Ideally, the notice period should go down to a few hours or go away totally.
I don't see any logic in this because no terrorist is going to declare his intentions! The only possible explanation is that (a) "dodgy people" are not aware their activities are known and (b) they travel under their real identities (always the easiest way) and this makes it easy to track them.