Security loophole in passport services indicative of future ID card abuses - Clegg

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 18th May 2006

Security loophole in passport services indicative of future ID card abuses

Responding to figures released by the Identity and Passport Service concerning the number of lost and stolen passport Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said "Many of the 600,000 documents recorded as lost or stolen may have been mislaid by individuals, but many others will have fallen into the hands of criminals and even terrorists. It is a worrying loophole in security, and a stark warning of the abuses we are likely to see with ID cards.

"The recent introduction of so-called secure delivery has clearly not eradicated the problem of passports being stolen from the post. This suggests that criminals have found ways to compromise the new delivery system. We urgently need to know how these documents were taken, and what has been done about it."