'Ambassador, with these trial passports you are really spoiling us... '
By Steve Ranger
Published: 8 November 2005 14:50 GMT
The first ePassports featuring biometric identification stored on a chip have been issued to British diplomats.
The Foreign Office has been conducting trials of the new passports, which will be issued to the public from February next year. The ePassports have been issued to diplomats including the British ambassador to the US, David Manning.
A trial of the passports took place at the Paris consulate in September, and a second trial took place in Washington in late October.
The passports are in the same format as the documents which will be issued to the public next year - the "new style passport with biometric data", a Foreign Office spokesman said.
Immigration officials have been notified so if diplomats try to use them to travel they should be able to get into the UK, he added. The trial passports will be withdrawn in a few months.
The passports feature "first generation" biometrics facial recognition - a digital version of the photo in the passport. Later versions are likely to include other biometrics such as fingerprints.
The UK Passport service has already started enforcing new photo standards during the quiet season to allow full scale ePassport production and facial recognition.
By August all new passports will be ePassports, in good time for the US October visa waiver deadline, the Home Office told silicon.com.
Passports with embedded biometrics will form one of the building blocks for the government's controversial identity cards.
For this role you will need to have a proven experience using Solidworks and you must hold a British Passport due to Security A top Manufacturing ...
With over 10 years of experience across multiple therapeutic areas they have an international reputation for excellence in conducting global clinical ...
Ideally an ex-consultant looking for an end user position, this is a position with 50% development and testing of the configuration changes to the ...
Agenda Setters 2008
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.
Stories from the web...
Copyright ©1995-2008 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Top of page
John O’Brien
London 2012: Will IT be hit by credit crunch?
Funding for tech could fall short
Peter Cochrane
Peter Cochrane's Blog: Government gaffe
Misunderstanding IT… again
Martyn Hart
Green IT changes outsourcing for all
Gov't guidelines bring carbon footprint to the forefront
silicon.com
Inbox: Data breaches, tech wages, ePassport woes
"If you offer training, you'll be fighting the applicants off with the proverbial stick..."
silicon.com
Inbox: Snooping bills, spam mountains, boring IT
"Have gov't all taken leave of their senses?"
Martyn Hart
Is short-termism holding back public sector outsourcing?
Comment: Driving down bids can store up trouble