PASSPORTS

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The price of a standard passport rose by 36%, nearly 13 times the rate of inflation, to pay for new anti-fraud measures. The price of a 10-year passport rose from £33 to £42, a child's passport from £19 to £25, and a 48-page "jumbo" passport from £40 to £54.50 on 1 October 2003. Collective passports, for schools and youth groups, will remain at £39. More than half of the extra cash raised by these rises will help pay for projects such as the inclusion in passports of information identifying their owners - microchips containing fingerprints, for example, or pictures of their iris or other facial characteristics.

It will also fund fraud investigation units already operating in passport offices around Britain and better staff training, according to ministers. The UK Passport Service said the rise was also needed to pay off its £26m debt to the Treasury for a 1999 computer crisis by October 2004. In November 2002 the price of adult passports rose by 10% and children's by 19%. The new fees will come into effect on 2 October, less than 11 months later. Travellers will no longer be allowed to amend passports.

Newly-weds or parents who wish to add children will have to buy new ones regardless of how long their existing passport has to run, a Home Office spokesman said. The cost of getting a passport quickly will also rise. The guaranteed same-day premium service will rise from £78 to £89 for a standard passport, from £64 to £71 for a child's passport and from £85 to £95.50 for a 48-page passport. The one-week "fast track" service will rise from £63 to £70. Fees for applications made overseas to British consular posts will also rise, but they will continue to offer an amendment service.

The cost of a passport will increase to £77 under plans for a compulsory national identity card. The controversial new cards will be held by everyone in Britain by 2013 and will be based on existing passports and possibly on driving licences in a £3 billion project. Home Secretary David Blunkett said the scheme would include "biometric" details such as someone's fingerprints or an image of their eye, stored on a microchip in each card. They will have to be produced to see a doctor, get a job and claim benefits. The Government will set up a National Identity Register to hold details of all 60 million people in the UK, including their fingerprints or other biometric details, so that their identities can be authenticated when they produce their cards.

A normal passport currently costs £42. The new combined passport and identity card will cost £77. Under-16s will get them free, the elderly will be offered "lifelong" versions and people on low incomes will be charged £10, the Home Office said. Ministers were unable to pinpoint the cost of buying and installing electronic machines to "read" the electronic data on the cards. Employers will usually be required to have a "reader" to check employees' identities but there may be concessions for small companies, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said.

Ms Hughes said she was confident that the massive computerised project would not be a repeat of earlier IT disasters such as the Criminal Record Bureau fiasco or the delays at the Passport Service in 2000 which forced then Home Secretary Jack Straw to take emergency measures. The police, MI5 and MI6 would have access to the National Identity register but only under certain "safeguards", the minister added. All EU and foreign nationals coming into Britain will have to pay for a biometric residence permit under the plans.

The price of a passport is to rise by 21% to £51 to fund controversial fingerprinting and face-scanning security checks. The increase will pay for anti-fraud measures including biometrics, which will form the basis of the controversial national ID card scheme. The charge will top £100 for the first time for one type of passport, a 48-page jumbo passport for frequent travellers, which rises £9 to £104.50 for the premium, same-day service.

Children's passports will increase by a whopping 36% to £34. The charge rises will also fund enhanced background checks on applicants and face-to-face interviews for first-time adult applicants. A Home Office spokesman said fingerprinting would not come in until 2008, with biometric passports initially involving face scans only.

Home Office minister Andy Burnham defended the rise, saying, "Countries all around the world are moving to strengthen the security of identity documents in the face of the growing threat of fraud and forgery. We cannot afford to stand idle. These improvements to passport security do carry a cost, but it is a price worth paying in order to protect passport holders from fraud and afford them continued convenient international travel." (Source: Mail on Sunday)

New Government legislation means anyone over 16 years of age applying for their first passport will now have to undergo a face-to-face interview. Derby has been chosen as an ideal location for a new office, in Stuart House, Green Lane, because of its excellent transport links and central position. The aim is for 95% of the population to be within one hour's travel of a new office and it means that people from Nottingham, Chesterfield and Burton will all come to Derby for their interviews.

Derby City Council leader Chris Williamson said, "I think such a facility is very welcome in the city. It will bring people into Derby and also bring additional income which will benefit everyone." John Forkin, director of Marketing Derby, which promotes the city said, "This can only be a good thing. Derby's centrality and road and rail links make it an ideal location and this will bring people into Derby who might not have visited otherwise."

Applications will still be made through the post but at the end of the process, first-time adult customers must have an interview. They will be asked basic questions to establish that they are who they claim to be. The new rules will affect 609,000 people a year and it is expected that the Derby office will handle more than 15,500 interviews. There will be 12 members of staff conducting the interviews. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Sep/07)