Britain has imposed restrictions on UPS air cargo passing through the country because the package delivery company has failed to comply with security regulations, the government said Friday.
The Department of Transport said it was barring UPS from screening its cargo at some British facilities but the restrictions did not relate to a specific threat and the firm was not barred from moving its cargo through the country.
"We can confirm that, following careful consideration, the department has restricted the number of sites in the UK at which UPS Ltd are permitted to screen air cargo until it has satisfied current security requirements," it said in a statement.
"The safety of the travelling public is paramount and our security regime is kept under constant review."
A spokesman for the department stressed that UPS, which is responsible for screening its cargo passing through Britain, was "still allowed to operate".
Britain introduced new security measures following the discovery in October of an Al-Qaeda plot to send parcel bombs from Yemen to the United States, which included an attempt to send a package containing explosives on a UPS flight through Britain.
UPS confirmed Friday that transport officials had raised concerns in a scheduled review of security measures and it was working to address the problem.
"Some facilities in the UK have been temporarily taken offline, which in some cases has led to delays in the movement of packages", it said in a statement, adding it hoped services would return to normal by the start of next week.
In the Al-Qaeda plot, explosives in a printer ink cartridge were found on a US-bound plane at East Midlands Airport in central England on October 29.
British security officers removed the device before the plane continued its journey to Chicago. British police said the bomb had been timed to explode over the eastern United States.
The device was in one of two packages sent from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago containing the explosive PETN. The plot was foiled after a tip-off from Saudi Arabia.
The other package, also consisting of explosives contained in an ink cartridge, was discovered at Dubai airport and was being transported by another US delivery company, FedEx.
The Yemen branch of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the plot, according to the monitoring website SITE.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is thought to be behind a number of recent attacks, including the 2009 Christmas Day "underpants bomb" scare, in which a Nigerian student smuggled a PETN-based device onto a US-bound passenger flight.
That device failed to fully explode, and the plane landed safely.
After the Al-Qaeda plot, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced ink cartridges of more than 0.5 kilogrammes (18 ounces) were banned from hand baggage on flights departing from Britain.
The cartridges were also banned on cargo flights unless they originated from a regular shipper with security arrangements with the government.
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