Clause 23 - Documents produced or found

Part of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:45 am on 25 October 2005.

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Photo of Andy Burnham Andy Burnham Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) 10:45, 25 October 2005

Thank you, Sir Nicholas.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks, because they give me an opportunity to expand on the clause. He is right to say that it contains important provisions. We covered much of proposed new sub-paragraph (4) in earlier exchanges, although I will return to the points on which he asked for clarification. I shall begin, however, by speaking to proposed new sub-paragraph (5), which he is right to say relates to biometric identification and verification. That will significantly enhance the integrity of our border controls. Under later clauses, we shall discuss in more detail our e-borders proposals, but it is right to explain more at this point about how biometric identification systems can enhance border control.

Clause 23 introduces a new power enabling immigration officers to use biometric identifiers to verify the validity of documents—for example, for those with biometric passports or those who have provided biometric data when applying for entry clearance or a visa for the UK. Immigration officers will be able to compare a document against the data collected when the travel document or entry clearance was issued to ensure the document’s authenticity and to verify its holder’s identity.

Initially, the power will be used for people who applied for biometric visas. The hon. Gentleman will know that we have begun to roll out—to use the favourite word of my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality—the biometric visa programme. The first pilot began in Sri Lanka, I believe, but the system is now in use at various locations around the world and is producing interesting and encouraging results. The hon. Gentleman knows that that is the direction of travel not only of this Government but of others: biometric visas are slowly but surely being introduced at posts around the world. Yes, the clause will initially relate to the verification of biometric visas, but to answer his main question, it will, in due course, apply to all persons, including UK citizens, with biometrically enabled travel documents, as well as to those who have a biometric visa or about whom biometric information has been recorded.

From next year, the first biometric passports will be issued to UK citizens. The passports will hold a chip that includes facial recognition technology. Over the next two to three years, the passports will be enhanced to become full biometric passports. The hon. Gentleman knows that the requirement for a biometric passport has been laid down by the United States in respect of countries in the visa waiver scheme. However, there is general agreement among the majority of leading countries around the world that we need to take steps towards full biometric passports.

The clause envisages the time when we will all hold biometric travel documents and it gives the power to the immigration officer to verify the person before them at the immigration desk. It gives them the ability to ensure that the reading for the person standing there who places their finger on the machine or looks into the system corresponds with the information held on the chip.

To be clear, the provision significantly enhances the security of travel documents. The strength of the biometric identification system is that people will be unable to hold multiple travel documents. They will be able to register their biometrics only once and therefore the scope to travel on false documents will be severely limited. That is why the clause is important. It will apply generally to holders of all biometric passports in time, and I am grateful to have had the chance to clarify that point.

The hon. Gentleman made a similar point about documents that are needed in everyday life—I believe that was the phrase he used—particularly in relation to the retention of passports by the Home Office. I readily acknowledge, as I did before I joined the Home Office as a junior Minister, that we have all come across cases in which passports or travel documents have gone missing. That is not something that we would consider likely or desirable because it can cause considerable stress to people who need their travel documents. I accept that, but that inconvenience has to be balanced by the need at times for immigration staff to have direct access to those documents in the course of carrying out their duties and by their overwhelming   duty to uphold the integrity of the system. So although I accept that there are unfortunate examples of travel documents going missing, they have to be balanced against a more general duty on members of the immigration service to go about their work.