Home Office accused of spinning own passport 'failings'

Two terrorists received passports

Tuesday, 20, Mar 2007 12:00

The Home Office has been accused both of fresh incompetence and cynically using the revelations to justify heightened security measures.

Two convicted terrorists have been given passports, it emerged today, contributing to the 10,000 passports fraudulently issued last year.

The Conservatives labelled the latest Home Office mistake "outrageous".

However, the Home Office maintains there is "nothing new" about this and the details have been in the public domain for some time. The news was released as a case study to highlight the need for change, a spokeswoman confirmed.

In turn the Liberal Democrats have criticised the government for cynically releasing the news to justify nationwide ID cards.

"Something surreal is afoot when the government advertises its own failings in order to make the case for new Labour's grandiose ID card scheme," noted Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg.

"Listening to ministers it would not be a surprise if they soon claimed ID cards would be a solution to bad weather," he continued. "This bad news should not be used cynically to justify the creation of an ID card sledgehammer to crack the passport fraud nut."

Government figures reveal the Identity and Passport Service identified 6,500 attempted passport frauds last year, but 10,000 fraudulent passports were approved.

Among these were two passports issued apiece to a convicted terrorist serving life in Morocco and Dhiren Barot, 34, of north London, currently in a UK jail for conspiracy to murder and a suspected al-Qaida member.

The Home Office claims face to face interviews will reduce the problem of fraudulent passport applications.

"We are currently one of only a few western nations that do not have a face-to-face element to the passport application process," a spokeswoman said.

"We know that this leads to fraudulent applications and that is why things are going to change this year, starting with first-time adult customers."

However, the Conservatives argue the 'case study' is a "shocking admission which betrays chaos at the heart of the passport system".

The revelation undermines the government's case for ID cards, shadow home affairs minister David Davis argued, bringing into question the government's competence to manage the scheme.

Mr Davis said: "What is to say they won't issue genuine ID cards to terrorists or that terrorists will not use fraudulent passports to obtain genuine ID cards?

"Yet again we see the public continue to be put at risk by the consequences of the government's failure and that the Home Office remains in a state of shambles under John Reid."

The Home Office plans to interview passport applicants from May this year, initially targeting new applicants aged 16 or over who have never had a passport before.