Chris Huhne

Over 9,000 Fraudulent Passports Issued In Last Two Years – Huhne

The Home Office has admitted that 9,256 fraudulent passports were granted in the last two years.

The Home Office made the admission following the release of figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats which showed that the number of fraudulent passport applications discovered by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is up fivefold in five years.

The figures, contained in an answer to a Parliamentary Question, show that:

·The number of attempted frauds detected in passport applications has risen by 518% in the last five years, from 1,497 in 2004/05 to 9,254 in 2008/09

·The IPS has detected 32,738 fraudulent applications in that time, with over half (18,636) occurring in the last two years

Commenting, Liberal Democrat 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.

“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.”

Notes: A spreadsheet giving a yearly breakdown of fraudulent applications is attached