Interviews for passports from April
From April, any adult applying for their first UK passport will face a compulsory face-to-face interview as part of a Government effort to reduce identity fraud.
Around 600,000 people a year will have to undergo a face-to-face interview at a special centre.
The scheme will be expanded in 2009 to anyone renewing a lost, stolen or expired passport.
A Home Office spokesman said the UK was more open to fraud because it was one of the few western countries that did not require applicants to be seen in person.
Chief Executive James Hall said: "We all as citizens recognise that we have to be inconvenienced by airport security but it's in our collective benefit that we are.
"So I think people will recognise that it's appropriate once in their lifetime to go through a little bit more inconvenience in order that we can ensure the integrity of the passport document."
But Liberal Democrat spokesman Simon Hughes said: "The Home Office needs to calm down, back off and let people go about their lives in an efficient way, efficient for people not efficient for the Home Office."
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This should have been in force a long time ago!
cheers
