MPs have been warned there could be another summer of disruption and delays for travellers crossing the Channel from Dover.

Port chiefs say new checks on passengers without an EU passport could take as long as ten minutes for each vehicle, compared to the two minutes they now take.

The stark warning came from Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister.

He appeared before MPs on the transport select committee this morning to answer questions about the disruption last summer.

But the focus switched to what could happen next year.

Mr Bannister warned that just seven months away from a new system of checks being introduced, there had not been any tests or trials to establish how they would be managed.

Asked by committee chairman Huw Merriman about a claim from Logistics UK that the new system could lead to 19-mile long tailbacks in Kent, Mr Bannister replied: “ I would very much like to answer that. However we have not been provided with any information about that.

"We have not seen what the process will be, what the technology will be.

"So it is very difficult to estimate what the time will be. What we have heard is that it will take two minutes per person to register plus two minutes per car."

He said there were reports that checks might be done on a handheld device like an iPad but, as things stood, he had no information about that.

Kent Online revealed in August that fears are growing about the impact that the introduction of biometric border checks might have.

On tailbacks, Mr Bannister said that in normal circumstances, the port operated as it should - but if there was an incident, cars backed up and "things could get sticky very quickly"

"We need a sufficient amount of time to test and trial and train the new technology...”

“But if [new checks] come in in the worst possible way we fear they will, it is going to have significant and continued disruption for a very long time," he said.

Asked what message he had for the new transport minister, Mr Bannister replied: “We need to know what the rules of the game are.

"We need to know what the technology will be. We need a sufficient amount of time to test and trial and train the new technology.”

Committee chairman MP Huw Merriman said it was “bizarre and unacceptable” that there had been no tests or trials of the new system.

On the reasons for the summer backlog, MPs were told that a key problem was that the number of officials from France who carried out checks from Dover was not in the numbers they expected.