1,000 passports 'missing in post'

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More than 1,000 passports are going missing in the post each year despite the use of "secure deliveries", a report suggests.

Conservative MP Grant Shapps, who compiled the figures, said they raised "serious concerns" over the risks of identity fraud and terrorism.

The introduction of secure deliveries in 2004 had left a loophole and ministers needed to "get a grip".

But the Home Office said the loss of passports had fallen "dramatically".

'Wrong hands'

Mr Shapps, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, said the Identity and Passport Service was losing three a day on average.

He added: "Having hiked up the cost of passports, ministers pledged to solve the delivery loophole, but now we discover that three passports are lost by the Home Office Agency each day, leading to serious fears over the integrity of the passport system itself.

"With identity fraud on the rise and the terror threat at 'severe' the Home Office needs to get a grip on the missing passport crisis, before these passports fall into the wrong hands."

An adult UK passport costs £66.

An Identity and Passport Service spokesman said losses had fallen by more than 80% since the secure delivery was introduced in March 2004.

In 2005, the most recent year for which figures exist, 6.39 million passports were produced - up from 4.69 million in 1999.

Last year, 290,996 British passports were reported either lost or stolen.