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02 February 2006
Identity fraud is now costing the UK an estimated £1.7 billion every year, claim Home Office figures.
The identity fraud bill works out at £35 per person, minister Andy Burnham told the BBC's Today programme.
The figure reveals a stark increase in the costs of identity fraud since 2002, when the Home Office estimated that it cost the nation £1.3 billion every year.
Mr Burnham said that the figures bolstered the government's case for introducing compulsory ID cards, which he claimed would provide greater protection against fraud. "We have all kinds of stand-in documents being called upon as identity documents - birth certificates, utility bills," he said. "The truth is these do not prove identity." The fight against identity fraud would also be aided by the recent decision to interview all people who make new applications for passports, he added.
"We are doing background checks on people before they get their documentation," he told Today.
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