De La Rue is making ‘world’s safest passport’ after overhaul

British passports have become “the most secure in the world”, after a design overhaul made them tougher for fraudsters to counterfeit, said the boss of the world’s biggest passports maker De La Rue.

A new 34-page UK passport was launched by De La Rue and the Home Office in November featuring complex security features like linking the photo page with the back cover of the book.

“It has some features which make it very difficult to counterfeit. The design of the data page makes it hard to tamper with. We believe it is the most secure passport in the world,” chief executive Martin Sutherland said.

The group also signed a deal with Japanese company Dai Nippon printing, the first company to make holograms, to help keep ahead of the forgers.

De La Rue is best known for printing banknotes and has a contract with the Bank of England to make the new polymer £5 note, which goes into circulation this year.