Identity Fraud (Hansard, 22 June 2004)

§ Mr. Browne

Identity fraud usually occurs when someone's personal information such as name, address or date of birth is captured without their knowledge and used by someone else to support criminal activity, which could involve deception, financial gain or obtaining other benefits and services.

Measures have been taken to improve the procedures for issuing and checking passports and driving licences, which are the two main official documents that are used currently to confirm personal details and therefore establish identity.

UK Passport Service has produced guidance on keeping passports safe and what to do if they are lost or stolen. The guidance emphasises that a lost or stolen passport increases the likelihood of the holder's identity being misused. It has also developed and deployed a database of lost and stolen passports, which is being shared with border authorities and police worldwide to counter identity fraud.

DVLA is reviewing the advice that it currently provides to drivers. It is considering what guidance it can offer on looking after licences, including the fact that drivers' identity could be open to misuse if their licences are lost or stolen.

In 2003 Home Office officials worked closely with colleagues in the UK Passport Service and DVLA to support the Association of Payment Clearing Services, CIFAS (the UK's Fraud Prevention Service) and the Finance and Leasing Association to produce "Identity Fraud—The UK Manual". The manual provides advice to staff on spotting false UK passports and driving licences and preventing identity fraud.

We have also looked at legislative changes to make identity theft or fraud easier to prosecute or to ensure that the penalties associated with fraudulent use of documents take account of their use in creating false, or 1371W stealing genuine, identities. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 changed the law to align the penalty associated with fraudulently obtaining a driving licence with that for fraudulently obtaining a passport and made these offences arrestable. This will ensure consistency of approach during prosecution so that fraudulently obtaining either document will incur a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment, serving as a more effective deterrent and ensuring that neither document is considered a weak link by fraudsters.

These measures should help to prevent fraudsters from using driving licences and passports to commit identity fraud.

We announced in 2003 our intention to create a new offence relating to being in possession or control of false identity documents, without reasonable cause. This offence will provide the police with the means to disrupt the activities of criminals who use false identity documents such as passports and driving licences at an earlier stage of their activities. We published a consultation paper on 26 April on the legislation needed to introduce identity cards. The draft Identity Cards Bill includes the proposed false document offences.

The Home Office has recently established a cross public-private sector work programme to tackle identity theft and identity fraud. The programme co-ordinates existing activity in the public and private sectors and identifies new projects and initiatives to reduce identity fraud.