Travel Requirements: Fraud

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detections of instances of travel document fraud were made at (a) ports of entry and (b) compliance offices since 1 May 2004 in respect of travel documents issued by EU member states, broken down by issuing state. (251937)

[holding answer 27 January 2009]: The following tables detail the detections of false European Union documents at UK border agency border force offices and immigration group enforcement offices for the period in question. They include passports, identity cards, refugee travel documents and emergency travel documents.

*Border* force detections of false EU travel documents
Country	2004¹	2005	2006	2007	2008	Total
AUT-Austria	30	28	18	15	8	99
BEL-Belgium	249	140	91	60	97	637
BGR-Bulgaria	n/a	n/a	n/a	87	113	200
CYP-Cyprus	3	4	4	12	20	43
CZE-Czech	56	71	80	50	44	301
D-Germany	178	121	87	50	44	480
DNK-Denmark	41	60	57	15	16	189
ESP-Spain	78	100	78	32	41	329
EST-Estonia	8	12	1	3	8	32
FIN-Finland	3	5	4	16	20	48
FRA-France	497	536	310	143	207	1,693
GBR-Great Britain	656	622	367	348	283	2,276
GRC-Greece	146	137	97	65	85	530
HUN-Hungary	37	99	79	7	8	230
IRL-Ireland	11	20	8	3	4	46
ITA-Italy	221	218	228	162	157	986
LTU-Lithuania	295	460	261	103	105	1,224
LUX-Luxembourg	1	1	0	0	0	2
LVA-Latvia	15	51	75	37	23	201
MLT-Malta	1	0	1	2	3	7
NLD-Netherlands	475	264	152	118	95	1,104
POL-Poland	71	140	178	107	110	606
PRT-Portugal	256	243	243	163	145	1,050
ROU-Romania	n/a	n/a	n/a	130	83	213
SVK-Slovakia	46	50	56	56	56	264
SVN-Slovenia	19	13	25	17	12	86
SWE-Sweden	0	0	0	0	1	1
Total	3,393	3,395	2,500	1,801	1,788	12,877

*Immigration group enforcement detections of false EU travel documents*
Country	2004¹	2005	2006	2007	2008	Total
AUT-Austria	0	1	0	1	0	2
BEL-Belgium	23	52	44	88	75	282
BGR-Bulgaria	n/a	n/a	n/a	5	7	12
CYP-Cyprus	0	0	0	2	1	3
CZE-Czech	2	1	8	15	6	32
D-Germany	0	1	2	23	7	33
DNK-Denmark	10	11	15	12	8	56
ESP-Spain	19	31	62	77	54	243
EST-Estonia	2	0	7	4	2	15
FIN-Finland	2	1	0	5	3	11
FRA-France	120	138	157	159	147	721
GBR-Great Britain	24	66	91	91	69	341
GRC-Greece	29	52	52	42	24	199
HUN-Hungary	0	3	8	0	1	12
IRL-Ireland	2	0	2	1	0	5
ITA-Italy	64	78	132	119	76	469
LTU-Lithuania	77	91	62	57	48	335
LUX-Luxembourg	0	0	0	0	0	0
LVA-Latvia	1	11	28	33	12	85
MLT-Malta	0	0	0	0	0	0
NLD-Netherlands	14	42	33	31	20	140
POL-Poland	28	3	15	7	7	60
PRT-Portugal	85	130	100	197	125	637
ROU-Romania	n/a	n/a	n/a	9	16	25
SVK-Slovakia	0	6	4	9	3	22
SVN-Slovenia	0	0	12	4	4	20
SWE-Sweden	2	0	4	1	1	8
Total	504	718	838	992	716	3,768
¹ From 1 May 2004

Volume 489: debated on Tuesday 10 March 2009