Fingerprints for passports?

Applicants for new passports will reportedly have to attend an interviews and be fingerprinted as from next year, according to a report in today’s edition of The Guardian. The newspaper reports that the Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told the passport service to acquire 70 new offices in which to carry out interviews – at the moment the organisation has just seven offices. The newspaper, quoting from the HM Passport Service’s corporate and business plan for 2005 to 2010, states that, as from next year, all new adult applicants will have to attend an interview and have their fingerprints taken. This procedure will then be extended to people renewing their passports – around five million per year, The Guardian suggests. Not surprisingly, critics of the scheme believe that the Government is merely using stealth to turn the passport into a “biometric identity card”. Liberal Democrat Mark Oaten is quoted as saying: “There are no international obligations on the UK to put fingerprints in passports. The idea raises important privacy questions that must be properly debated, both in public and in Parliament.” Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd www.newsfromabroad.com