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| Britain | |
| Millions face UK passport interviews | |
| 2005-06-28 | |
| LONDON - Millions of Britons will have to attend an interview to get a new passport to try to combat identity fraud, the passport service head said in an interview published on Tuesday. Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the UK Passport Service, told the Financial Times that by July 2006 all new passports would have computer chips and facial recognition data. By the end of 2008, more than 4.5 million people each year would be questioned if they want a new-style passport that will contain security features such as fingerprints, iris scanning and facial recognition, he added. âThe next stage will be putting fingerprints into passports ... so we will be moving from 600,000 being interviewed at the end of 2006 to interviewing more than 4.5 million a year from the end of 2008,â he told the FT. The 4.5 million people subject to interviews will cover all adult first time applicants, people whose passports have expired and those who report their passports lost or stolen. âFor the law-abiding citizen there might be a 10-minute meeting ... for others it will be different,â Herdan said.
Ministers announced plans for a more limited passport interview system last year, saying the infrastructure could form the âbuilding blockâ for an identity card scheme. Some political opponents and civil rights groups say the scheme is too expensive, the legislation is flawed and will compromise individual privacy. Members of parliament debate new legislation for ID cards in the House of Commons on Tuesday. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 This is a good thing. I hope the U.S. plans to do something similar. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-06-28 13:22 |
| #1 "He played down any role in fighting terrorism, because ex-Taliban members and Algerian terror-suspects will be granted asylum, whereas political dissidents from Zimbabwe will be refused entry." |
| Posted by: New England 2005-06-28 00:15 |