§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 26 June 2002,Official Report, column 886, on the meeting with the French Interior Minister, if he will make a statement on the use of biometric techniques in establishing more secure methods of passport control. [66745]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 15 July 2002]The use of biometric techniques to link a travel document to the rightful holder has long been recognised as a policy goal by passport issuing authorities around the world. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is developing a biometric standard for use in machine readable travel documents to ensure global interoperability. The United Kingdom (UK) is supporting the work of ICAO in establishing this standard. In addition the UK Passport Service is investigating ways to use biometrics information in UK passports and in passport cards as the latter are developed; and in its efforts to counter fraud.