A PASSPORT office is to be opened in Blackburn this year as part of new, tighter controls to cut fraudulent applications.

The office will allow applicants for new passports to be interviewed in East Lancashire rather than have to travel to Liverpool.

The Home Office plans to initially rent premises for up to five years to provide the service and the move has been welcomed by MPs.

The requirement for interviews, which comes into force at the same time, is to cut fraud.

Initial applications will still have to be sent to one of the main seven regional offices in Glasgow, London, Durham, Belfast, Liverpool, Peterborough and Newport in Wales which will establish that the identity exists and the person is entitled to a British passport.

Once the "biographical footprint" has been established through independent sources like the electoral roll and address histories, applicants will be invited to telephone the Identity and Passport Services advice line to make an appointment at one of the new interview offices.

They will have a choice of where they wish to go for a 10 to 20 minute interview which should be available within four days.

The Blackburn office, expected to deal with 13,000 applications a year, will have four desks.

There will be 69 similar new offices for first time passport applicants including ones in Manchester and Liverpool.

The government hopes this will cut queues and waiting times for the new biometric passports.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "This is good news. East Lancashire people should not face the time, travel and expense of having to go to Liverpool for a first time passport interview."