To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consideration he has given to requiring credit cards to carry a photograph of the person they are issued to. (203859)

I have been asked to reply.

No, we have not considered such a requirement but the industry did look at the viability of putting photographs on credit cards as an additional security method. However, it was deemed to only provide a costly short to medium-term solution. With the introduction of chip and PIN, technology-based methods are now used to verify that the card is not being used fraudulently.