Fraudulent passport numbers leap - Public Service

Fraudulent passport numbers leap - Public Service

The Home Office has admitted that 9,256 fraudulent passports were granted in the last two years. It revealed these figures after the Liberal Democrats received an answer to a Parliamentary Question that showed that the number of illegal applications discovered by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) had gone up five times in as many years.



The figures revealed that the number of attempted frauds detected in passport applications rose by 518 per cent in the last five years from 1497 in 2004-05 to 9254 in 2008/09. The IPS had spotted 32,738 fraudulent applications in that time with more than 50 per cent of them (18,636) happening in the last two years

The Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne said: "It is staggering that the Home Office admits that thousands of fraudulent passports are being dished out every year. It begs the question how many undesirable people have been able to cheat the system and get their hands on the gold-standard of British identity. The Government's estimate on how many people slip through the net is fantastic news for would-be identity fraudsters and terrorists."

He added: "Ministers seem intent on pressing ahead with ID cards-lite but on this evidence they will soon be compromised by hackers and conmen. ID cards are an expensive way of achieving nothing and the government cannot be trusted to keep the system secure. They must be scrapped immediately."