BRITAIN’s first biometric passports are due to be issued next month, marking the biggest change to our international travel credentials in 50 years.

Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the UK Passport Service (UKPS), is travelling up and down the country to prepare for the £60m conversion.

He said: “We’re turning the passport from a piece of traditional paper technology with some physical security features into a device with an electronic chip that will store the facial image biometric of the holder. It’s a huge innovation.”

Herdan helped to negotiate contracts with the private companies handling elements of the scheme. Almost every week he visits a facility to check progress.

His next call is at a 150-yard-long production line at an undisclosed site “somewhere in the north of England” where the passports will be printed on new Japanese presses.

Driving this attention to detail is the memory of the 1999 passport debacle, when the UKPS failed to cope with the rush of summer applicants.

Herdan, who is paid £130,000 a year, was called in to sort out the mess.

“We have become a very risk-averse organisation, taking great care about how we introduce things,” he said.

The new passport is part of an international initiative to improve security since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Herdan represents Britain at meetings with countries that are updating their documents.

From October each one of this year’s 610,000 first-time adult passport applicants will be interviewed at 69 new offices across the country. The UKPS will then employ 4,500 staff.

These days 90% of applications are made by post, leaving scope for abuse. Last year 1,500 attempted fraudulent postal passport applications were identified. Now a personal grilling by officials is expected to reduce deception.

Herdan also meets the home secretary, Charles Clarke, regularly to discuss topics such as the next big change — one that will affect us all. “From 2009 we introduce fingerprint biometrics. From then on everyone will be called to interview, even to renew a passport,” he said.

Another call on Herdan’s time is preparation for ID cards. He is one of the government’s senior management team of three who meet weekly, “building the definition of the scheme, and piloting it through”.

High among Herdan’s other duties is fielding complaints from the public about passport applications. Right now Herdan is completing his annual “meet the staff” roadshows, which he began after the 1999 fiasco. “I thought it important to apologise to staff for what had happened, and to share our plans.

“No two days are the same. I love the variety,” he said. “There is a lot still to happen. This job will get more interesting yet.”

Times Recommends

• Blackstone target at $7.75bn on China deal
• An opportunity in the Muslim community
• BSkyB deal may spell trouble for Virgin