Child Fingerprint Database Plan
Ministers are considering setting up a database of fingerprints of children aged 11 to 15. Immigration minister Liam Byrne said that the idea is being considered as part of the preparations for the introduction of biometric passports and ID cards.
{mosimage}From next year, everyone over 16 who applies for a passport will have their fingerprints – along with eye and facial scans – recorded in the National Identity Register.
But Mr Byrne said ministers were concerned that teenagers aged 16-20 could end up travelling for a period on passports without biometric details if they hold a child passport issued between the ages of 11 and 15 and valid for five years.
Officials at the Identity and Passport Service have proposed the fingerprint database as a way of ensuring that all passports carried by those aged 16 or over hold biometric details, he said.
But he said no final decision had yet been made on whether to go ahead with the proposal. “These are proposals which we are looking at,” Mr Byrne told ITV1’s The Sunday Edition. “The challenge that officials have been asked to find an answer to is how do you make sure that people who are 16 and over have got biometric details recorded in their passports?
“If you only have to renew your passport every five years then potentially a 12-year-old won’t have to renew their passport until they are 16. That would mean you would have some 16-year-olds who would have a passport without biometric details. These are proposals which officials are looking at, but we haven’t come to any conclusion yet.”
The Sunday Times reported that documents circulating at the IPS envisage fingerprinting of 11-15 year-olds starting with 295,000 children who apply for passports in 2010 and eventually affecting 495,000 youngsters annually.