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PICTURES IMPERFECT(Sunday Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)THOUSANDS of Scots are having passport applications rejected because photo booths are not meeting new standards. Many of the country's busiest photo cabins are delivering pictures ruled illegal by passport authorities. Up to 8000 Scots applications are being rejected because the pictures are are too fuzzy, the wrong size or on the wrong kind of paper. But new anti-terror measures also ban photographs of people with their eyes shut. And a no-smiling rule means grinning away like the Baldy Man, played by Gregor Fisher, above, will also rule out headshots. Mother-of-four Yvonne Morrison, 45, from Maybole, Ayrshire was told that none of the eight photographs she had taken at a picture booth in a supermarket in Glasgow were good enough. She had to search frantically until she found a photo booth that was working and met the requirements. Yvonne was told by staff that they were getting scores of people in every day with the wrong photographs - mainly taken in photo booths. She said: "They would not tell me why my photographs were not being accepted. "They were not able to recommend photo booths which were suitable. To make matters worse, the passport office's own photo booth was not working. "Eventually I found another booth in Buchanan Street bus station but I had no idea until I took them back to the passport office if they were okay. Luckily they were." Yvonne added: "While I appreciate the government is trying to improve security, the passport office could be doing more to make things easier for the public. "When I spoke to an attendant at the Glasgow office I was told to write to the Home Office to complain - as if that would do any good." The new requirements for passport photos are part of the government's campaign to meet international biometric standards. They were introduced to tighten global security in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Since September last year all new travel documents must carry pictures that are machine-readable. Staff are trained to tell if the photographs are legal and they also use special scanners. School photographs have also been banned and [ people who submit pictures printed off home computers will also have them rejected. Yesterday the Home office said they are contacting companies who supply photograph booths to let them know their machines may need to be upgraded. A spokesman said: "We are also speaking to supermarkets and organisations who have them on their premises to let them know about the new rules. "It is very important that applicants send us photos that meet the new international standards. "Facial recognition will be used to check future passport applications against a database of known passport fraudsters. It will also be used to make border control more secure and deter the movement of criminals and terrorists. The new rules state that the photograph must be on a certain standard of paper. The person's full face must be shown, looking straight at the camera, with a neutral expression and their mouth closed. The spokesman added: "There are also new restrictions on the wearing of glasses and hats are also banned." Around one out of every seven passport applications in Scotland is rejected because the photographs supplied fall foul of the new standards In the past year passport offices across Britain were forced to L send back more than 80,000 "faulty" photographs, around 8000 from Scotland. Last year, a record seven million UK passports were issued by the passport service. Only the USA issues more new passports every year. SUNDAY EMAIL n [email protected] |