§ 45. Mr. Dudley Smithasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures he now proposes taking to prevent individual's obtaining a passport by submitting the birth certificate of someone long since dead and then assuming that person's identity.
§ Mr. LuardNo further practical safeguards seem possible. There is no central record of deaths. For a standard 10-year passport safeguard is provided by verification of identity by a professional person's countersignature. Such a requirement for British visitor's passports would destroy the principle that they should be obtainable with minimum formality on a while-you-wait basis.