Another Successful Year for Identity And Passport Service

The IPS Annual Report and Accounts just published highlights IPS’ success in exceeding all its customer service targets including processing 99.62 per cent of postal passport applications in ten days and a 97.5 per cent customer satisfaction rating. The report also shows that around 9,000 fraud attempts were detected in 2007/2008, up on last year’s figures.

The latest anti-fraud measure to be introduced by IPS is a network of 68 offices opened to carry out face-to-face passport interviews for first-time adult applicants. Over the past 12 months these offices have completed more than 144,000 interviews.

Meg Hillier Home Office minister said:

“It is vital we do everything we can to keep the British passport a world-class, trusted and secure document, which is why these figures are so welcome.

“This report shows even greater progress is being made in the ways the Identity and Passport Service tackles fraud while it continues to give customer service that is second to none.

“IPS has shown it is a forward looking organization which is ready to deliver the National Identity Scheme, which starts in November this year with compulsory identity cards for foreign nationals.”

IPS Chief Executive James Hall said:

“I am delighted our annual report shows the Identity and Passport Service is performing so well against its key measures and continues to offer our customers a superb service.

“We are better placed than ever to build on our successes in the passport service to deliver the National Identity Scheme.

“I would like to thank all our staff for their hard work over the past year in making IPS a success.”

The network of interview offices for first-time adult applicants builds on work to ensure the British passport remains a modern, trusted travel document. This work includes:

* the introduction of secure delivery of passports in 2004;
* the creation of the lost and stolen passport database in 2003;
* the introduction of enhanced background checks
* the switch to biometric ePassports in 2006;
* boosting the number of IPS specialist counter-fraud staff; and
* providing a Passport Validation Service (PVS) so that the validity of passports presented as proof of ID can be checked.

Source: Home Office

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