David Leppard writes in the Sunday Times:

Passport applicants are facing a looming crisis of delays, inconvenient journeys and “intrusive” personal interviews, according to a leaked Whitehall memo.

They will have to wait up to six times longer for their documents and travel up to 80 miles for face-to-face interviews at passport offices under changes paving the way for the government’s ID cards.

At present people can apply by post and get their passports in as little as a week. From March 26, however, the leaked memo reveals all first-time applicants will have to be interviewed in person.

By 2008-9 this requirement will be extended to all those seeking to renew their passports, causing millions greater inconvenience by forcing them to travel to one of 69 new passport offices for face-to-face interviews.

The changes are being introduced in preparation for ID cards, which will include biometric data such as fingerprints, eye or facial scans.

Note that date: 26th March 2007.

This entry was posted by andrew on Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 23:50 and is filed under General, Neutral, UK News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.