10,000 passports obtained by fraud

An estimated 10,000 British passports were issued to fraudulent applicants last year, new figures have shown.

Home Office minister Joan Ryan revealed that the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) received 16,500 fraudulent applications between October 2005 to September last year.

In a written ministerial statement, she said "almost half" of those were stopped by existing safeguards but the remainder went undetected.

She said: "Our current estimate is therefore that the level of undetected fraud is about 0.15%, equivalent to 10,000 applications against the planned 6.6 million passports issued per year."

The announcement came on the day the IPS revealed details of a new project to reduce fraud.

From May, first-time adult applications will be forced to attend passport offices for face-to-face interviews.

Tuesday's fraud figures were based on a sample of several thousand applications and is believed to be the most accurate estimate so far of the extent of passport fraud.

Ms Ryan said: "Although precise figures are difficult to obtain, it appears that the level of attempted fraud is increasing and getting more sophisticated.

"Analysis of the frauds shows that the main fraud threat is from first-time adult applications, followed by first-time child applications."

The interview process will begin "modestly" in May and will be rolled out across Britain throughout the year, the minister added.