Face-to-face interviews lasting up to 20 minutes are to be compulsory for all passport applicants, even for renewals, a measure that will dramatically increase the time it takes to get a new passport.

Plans to interview first-time applicants have been known since last year and will be implemented later this year, when an estimated 600,000 adults will be required to attend a face-to-face interview with staff of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), the new name of the UK Passport Service, as of April 1.

But now it has emerged, buried in a IPS briefing, that all applicants - including those who are simply renewing a passport - will have to be interviewed in person by 2009.

The initiative is intended to reduce the number of fraudulent passport applications but will also mean that the amount of time it takes for most people to receive their passport will increase from ten to fifteen working days.

The additional delay will mostly be caused by the process of securing an interview at one of 69 "Authentication by Interview" (AbI) offices that are set to open around the country, starting later this year.

The IPS yesterday submitted their plans for the cities and towns where these offices are to be located, although the specific properties to be used have yet to be decided (see link to map above).

The location of the offices has been designed to make the journey for an interview less than half an hour for the vast majority of the population and less than an hour for people in more rural locations. Some remote communities will be outside this hour journey time but alternative arrangements are being made to allow interviews to take place using a secure webcam. Areas this affects include the Western Isles, the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, Anglesey, Pembrokeshire and the Scilly Isles.

The opening hours of the new AbI offices will vary, however all will be open on Saturdays. Most are not expected to open every weekday. On days that they do open, they will open from 8am to 6pm although the seven smallest offices will only open for two half-days a week.

Each interview is expected to last between 10 and 20 minutes and will focus on answering personal questions, such as where applicants have lived in the past. The personal interview is aimed at drastically reducing the number of fraudulent applications, three quarters of which are related to first-time adult applications.

An IPS spokesman said that the current number of fraudulent applications was "unacceptable". Some fraudsters submit multiple postal applications from overseas in the hope that one will slip through the net, he said.

Face-to-face interviews for all will come at some point before 2009 to tie in with the requirement to add further biometric information to passports.

The IPS has already started issuing biometric passports that contain details of the holder's facial characteristics on a smart chip embedded within. By 2009, European countries covered by the Schengen Agreement are planning to add fingerprint biometrics to their passports. Despite not being covered by the Agreement, the UK will add these too in order that the country does not become an increased target for passport fraudsters. The face-to-face interview will therefore be used to scan the fingerprints of applicants.

The new rules may also affect people trying to get a passport in an emergency - only those people with genuine emergencies will be able to obtain a new passport without going through the personal interview process.

The IPS spokesman said the new procedures will lengthen the application process but hoped that the public would understand the need for additional security.

Home Office figures show that (apart from 2001, when 2,419 were detected) the number of fraudulent applications is under 2,000 per year - "three-quarters of which" as your article points out, "are related to first-time adult applications". Given a passport-holding population of well over 40 million British citizens, a simple calculation shows just how disproportionate and costly a "response" to a fraud rate of 0.005% these interviews really are. Lost work time alone will cost the economy billions, on top of the already spiralling costs of the ID scheme - which is the real agenda here. The British public are being grossly deceived and anyone with any concerns about having their "identity" controlled by the State should renew their passport now, and buy themselves a period of grace from this privacy-busting and intrusive regime. Phil Booth, London

I live in Oregon, does that mean that when I have to renew my passport I will have to travel the 3,000 miles to Washington DC? (which is where I sent my last passport renewal) Interviews for new passport holders I can understand, but not for renewals. Andrew Duffield, Eugene, Oregon, USA

Another load of petty bureaucrat’s asking me personal questions, no thanks. I bet they under man it so we have nice long queues, and I get to pay for it - whoopee! Plus a day off work, plus travel, this is going to cost us a fortune. I bet the cost of a passport will easily exceed the flights. Joy. Nicholas Scott, Newark

House prices are stupid and the South East of England is the most populated area on earth. The mistakes of the past ten years will be with all of us that live in the UK for many decades to come and beyond. For me the answer is easy: no more passports for Non-UK nationals, there is no more room - interviews or not. Peter Davies, Farnborough

I thought the point of getting a signature from a "respected" member of the community was to avoid fraudulent applications. I can see the benefit of an interview for new applicants where there is some suspicion but not for all - and I wonder how they will interview young children and babies since they now need their own passport? Perhaps some kind of notary service would be better than yet another whole new team of bureaucrats! For renewals to gather biometric info wouldn't it be far easier and cost-effective to provide an extension of the Post Office service available now? I can see no need for an interview on a renewal application. This smacks to me of yet another poorly thought through draconian solution. Name and address withheld

Face-to-face is the only way to guarantee that the applicant is bone fide. Yes this is another add-on to bureaucracy. But why not make passports equivalent to ID cards? Those who hold a valid passport therefore should not need an ID card! Daniel Murphy, Dorchester

The horse has bolted, escaped to France, been fattened and turned into pate, re-imported and is now for sale in Tesco. Meanwhile, this Government, this incompetent shower, this media flotsam, has decided to set up a committee to look into the possibility of designing some stable doors that perhaps could go into production sometime in 2009. Bob Matthews, Chesham, Buckinghamshire

I agree, finally someone has a bit of common sense. There are so many people here, who don't speak English, don't work or pay taxes or have a passport. Why can't this procedure be put in place immediately? Raven Moody, Sutton

I believe that Dominic (below) has it in a nutshell there. What is to say that the little pencil-pushers would really give a damn anyway - as long as they make it from 9 - 4.30 and get paid? Some people say this is a strong liberal democratic government. I say it is nothing more than a dictatorship with a smiling face at the wheel. Even if the 60+ million people of this country all said no, the Government would just go ahead and do it anyway. James Pope, Manchester

And of course fraudulent passports will still be issued without interview, by the same means they are sold today. What a complete waste of time and money. Never mind the sleaze of this Government. They should be thrown out on the grounds of incompetence. They just aren't up to the job. Name and address withheld

This will just give more people employment in the Civil Service. Will we all eventually be employed by the Government? Sadly, the criminals will just make their own copies so it will only inconvenience the public. Crispin Banner, Croydon

Face-to-face interviews with passport applicants are long overdue but depending on the ability of the interviewers may prove to be less effective than we would wish. Still, worth a try - as is anything that attempts to prevent people from abusing the natural compassion and tolerant nature of our community. Keith Downer, London

I have no problem with the Government attempting to control the issue of new passports. And if I need to attend an office ONCE to supply the new biometric data I agree that this may be needed. But to require existing holders to go through this will be a waste of time and money and cause unneeded misery and delay for renewals. Will this measure extend to those British passport holders who live and work outside the UK and how will they be dealt with? Duncan Boyd, Sotogrande, Spain

I hope they have put a procedure in place for British passport holders who live outside the UK. I don't look forward to queuing at the Embassy! Name and address withheld

While these changes are likely to result in more bureaucratic nonsense and a complete waste of time for all concerned, the most important point to be made isn't about passports at all. It is that these registration centres are going to form the main entry points into the Government's tracking and surveillance database, the National Identity Register. These are the places where we'll be summoned to provide voluminous documentation and have our very selves numbered, and measured, and tagged with a plastic card. The creation of these centres should therefore be treated with nothing but contempt and derision. Ian Darling, Twyford, Berkshire

I believe it is a waste of time, and money, for both the Government and for people needing to renew or get a new passport. Having to travel to a designated passport office is expensive and very time-consuming for people, and the Government's claim that people in remote areas will have the interview via secure web-cam is crazy. A lot of people still do not have internet access or computers, so that would automatically mean that these people have a very difficult time in getting a passport. Graham Holden, Brighton

I was a victim of car registration plate cloning and spent three months proving my innocence. The crime would not have existed had speed cameras not been invented. New technology to enforce the law simply breeds new crimes to circumvent it. Nobody had heard of identity theft years ago. The new passport and identity safeguards will simply produce new forms of crime and ordinary people’s lives will become more and more complex. I despair for the future. Name and address withheld

I have had several passports before and I hold a valid driving licence. I have lived in the UK all my life and paid my taxes. Suddenly they decide I might be an impostor so I have to travel 30 miles to a neighbouring city for a face-to-face interrogation by some bureaucrat to prove who I am in my own country. Do they really think determined and well-briefed fraudsters couldn't pull the wool over the interviewer's eyes? This is just one more out of series of systematic attacks on the ever-diminishing civil liberties of the British people by a government that has lost the plot. Stuart Foster, Doncaster

Can this Government do anything other than create bureaucracy? Sixty-nine offices' worth of pencil-pushers, making the rest of our lives harder, and as usual WE foot the bill! Responding to this extra red tape, fraudulent applicants will simply become more sophisticated and time will prove that the investment of time and money is neither worth the investment nor commensurate to the threat. Dominic Graham de Montrose, London