Passport applicants to face ID checks

Saturday, 17 February 2007 12:00 AM

Foreign nationals will be required to attend a one-on-one interview with government officials in order to acquire a British passport, it has been confirmed.

The Home Office said that quizzing the 600,000 people who apply for passports every year will reduce identity fraud, which the department claims costs the UK £1.7 billion annually.

The new scheme will come into effect in two months time.

And then from 2009 onwards, adults applying to renew lost, stolen or expired passports will also be compelled to answer questions about themselves.

But the Home Office insisted that the measures do not represent an invasion of privacy.

"The point is to prevent fraudsters stealing other people's identity. Everything gathered that is additional to the initial application form will be destroyed shortly after the interview," a spokesperson said.

"People will be asked about basic information about themselves; not deeply private information, but information that can be checked."

James Hall, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), added that the ten to 20 minute long interviews would be for the "collective benefit" of British citizens.

"So I think people will recognise that it's appropriate once in their lifetime to go through a little bit more inconvenience in order that we can ensure the integrity of the passport document," he told the BBC.

But Liberal Democrat spokesman Simon Hughes claimed that the scheme will represent a serious disruption to many people's lives.

"The Home Office needs to calm down, back off and let people go about their lives in an efficient way, efficient for people not efficient for the Home Office," he said.

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• immigration