Foreign Office faces up to biometric passports

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is spending £5m to equip embassies and consulates around the world with the technology to issue biometric passports.

One in 10 British passports is issued overseas, and the new web-based Identity Document Issuance System aims to make sure these passports are as secure as those issued at home by the UK Passport Office, which is in the midst of a move to biometric passports.

Technology company 3M will install new passport issuance systems that can identify biometric information at 104 embassies, consulates and high commissions.

Biometric technology aims to prevent multiple passports from being issued to the same person under different identities.

Facial measurements from passport photographs will be converted into a digital format and stored on a chip on the passport, along with name, age and birthplace.

FCO director of consular services Paul Siezland said: "Secure identity documentation is increasingly important given today's focus on improving border controls."

He said 3M's track record in issuing secure documents included an earlier project for the FCO to issue machine-readable passports.