E-passport chips ‘may expire in two years’
Travellers with a new e-passport may find they run out sooner than expected after a new report reveals the biometric chip within them is only guaranteed for two years.
Passports are traditionally issued for ten years, but today the National Audit Office (NAO) says the new technology used by the electronic passports may not last that long.
The new travel documents have been issued to everyone applying for a new passport from October last year. A standard adult passport now costs £66, up from £51 previously, to cover the expected £195 million cost of the chip elements.
Today’s report says the project has been delivered to time and below the budget of £63 million, but expresses concern that the readers used to pick up the photo and biographical data in airports have not yet been properly tested
In addition, a failure to coordinate government departments means that despite the new passports being introduced as planned in September last year, the readers are not being made available nationwide until this March.
“The full security benefits of e-passports will not be realised until UK border control readers are fully upgraded, and it is only then that we will know the impact of this new technology on travellers,” said John Bourn, the head of the NAO.
Opposition parties said today’s report revealed the government was unfit to manage the nationwide identity cards project planned to come into effect in 2010 – a scheme both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats fiercely oppose.
Shadow home secretary David Davis said e-passports were a “shambles”, adding: “How many more times must the consequences of the government’s incompetence hit the taxpayer?
“And this from the people who want to run the ID cards project. This is another reason why ID cards are a bad idea.”
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: “Once again this government’s fascination with whizz-bang technological solutions appears to be running well ahead of what technology is really able to do.”
However, Home Office minister Joan Ryan defended the scheme, saying the NAO report had acknowledged that the Identity and Passport Service had introduced the e-passport in time to meet American regulations on biometric passports, and within budget.
“The biometric e-passport helps safeguard identity and ensures that UK passport holders will continue to enjoy visa-free travel to the United States,” she said.
“We will build on the success of the e-passport in the coming years as we deliver the national identity scheme helping to provide protection against the growing threat of identity fraud, which we know enables other very serious crimes including terrorism, illegal working and people trafficking.”
