Mandatory passport checks for everyone leaving the country - the only way of recording whether failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants have departed the UK - will not be in place for another eight years, John Reid admitted today.

Within the next two years, people from high-risk countries will have to present biometric identification, such as fingerprinting, when they arrive in the UK and when they leave so they can be more easily tracked.

But the re-introduction of embarkation checks, which include counting and identifying every person leaving the country, will be phased in between next year and 2014. The checks were partially removed by the Conservatives in 1994 and scrapped altogether when Labour came to power.

"We will extend exit controls in stages based on risk, identify who overstays and count everyone in and out, while avoiding delays to travellers, by 2014," said Mr Reid.

Just hours before Mr Reid made his statement to MPs, an independent peer described the immigration system as a horrible mess and predicted that the Home Secretary's plans to reform it would be all talk and no action. The Countess of Mar resigned as a member of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal after 21 years in protest at the shambolic system.

The Home Secretary announced measures which he promised would transform the troubled Immigration and Nationality Directorate into a fair, effective, transparent and trusted service.

Tougher checks before immigrants and asylum seekers arrive in the UK, speedier removal of failed asylum seekers and of visitors who over-stay their holiday or working visas, and speedier decisions on asylum cases, were part of Mr Reid's agenda for change. He matched some of his promises with targets, such as deporting failed asylum seekers within six months of arrival in the UK by the end of 2011.

A number of intermediate targets will be set, to grant asylum or deport 35 per cent of new claimants within six months by next April, 60 per cent by December 2008 and 75 per cent by
December 2009. The reform plan will also see the backlog of unresolved asylum cases cleared within five years.

Mr Reid said that the Government would continue to campaign for the power to deport people it considered a threat to security, and would consult on changes to UK law to make it easier to deport foreign nationals.

A 28-page document emphasised plans for weeding out undesirables even before they arrived in the UK. The new moves would involve checking foreigners’ eligibility to come to the UK before they even set foot on a plane, under a so-called "authority to carry" scheme for airlines which will be piloted by April 2009.

Previously announced plans to introduce uniforms for frontline staff such as passport control officers will be piloted by April next year, and introduced by April 2009.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that much of what Mr Reid said was not new. More tough talk and a culture of blame towards civil servants who were overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the immigration crisis would not help to solve the serious problems facing the service, he said.

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson