Hundreds of thousands of people applying for a British passport will have to undergo a face-to-face interview in an attempt to cut fraudulent applications.

Of 16,500 fraudulent applications made last year, 10,000 were successful, according to figures released by the Home Office yesterday. The figures were published as the department outlined proposals to make first-time applicants travel up to 20 miles (32km) and face up to 200 questions about their family, bank accounts, mortgages and previous addresses.

Among those who have used fraudulent passports are Dhiren Barot, who admitted last year plotting to kill hundreds of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and Salaheddine Benyaich, serving 18 years for terrorist attacks in Morocco.

More than 600,000 applicants will be affected by the rules, which come into force in May, and will increase from three to six weeks the time it takes to issue the £66 adult passport. The Home Office will abandon the one-week fast-track service from June 1. First-time applicants will have to travel to one of a network of passport offices for the face-to-face interview.

Bernard Herdan, director of service delivery at the Identity and Passport Service, said: “We will not ask questions to which we don’t know the answers. Before the interview takes place, we will have cross-checked that individual against various databases to uncover information about them.”

Mr Herdan said that officials would use the electoral roll, credit reference databases and other databases to check information. He said: “Applicants will be asked about their previous addresses and how long they have lived there, who lives with them, whether they have a mortgage, where and when their parents were born, which bank accounts they hold and questions about the countersignatory to their passport application.”

Mr Herdan said that the process could be extended, and Home Office officials said that people renewing or replacing a lost passport could face a similar interview in the future. The process is expected to take about half an hour, including an interview lasting 10 to 20 minutes. If successful, travel documents will be issued within three days. The first offices will open in Peterborough, Belfast, Glasgow and Newport, followed by 65 more across Britain by the end of the year.

The Home Office said that the offices had been located to ensure that more than half the population would have to travel only 15 minutes for an interview. However, critics of the scheme say that is an underestimate, and point out that most cities will have only one interview centre, including London.

Phil Booth, of NO2ID, a campaign group, said: “We urge anyone who hasn’t yet got an adult passport to get one, before they get dragged in for an official grilling whose main purpose is to compile a personal dossier that will follow them through life.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “Ministers have claimed the passport service is the jewel in the Home Office crown, yet this revelation shows that even here there are failings that are worse than we could have possibly feared.”

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