PEOPLE in Southampton are facing a passport postcode lottery as those living in certain parts of the city face extra checks for fraud.

The postcode SO16 – which takes in Bassett, Redbridge, Rownhams, Nursling and Chilworth – is on a 100-strong watchlist drawn up by the Passport Office.

It is targeting what it believes are suspect areas with extra security checks, as it struggles to clear a huge backlog affecting more than 360,000 people across the country.

More than 40 of the postcodes are in London, with others in Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds and Brighton, as well as Southampton.

But one senior MP – former shadow home secretary David Davis – has attacked the policy as “lazy thinking to save money”.

Mr Davis said: “This sounds like a deliberate postcode lottery. Doubtless there are an awful lot of non-fraudsters living in those areas whose service should not be altered by this policy.”

And Mark Serwotka, leader of the PCS union which represents Passport Office staff, condemned a “potentially discriminating postcode system” – often focusing on areas with a large ethnic minority population.

He added: “The Passport Office should agree to sit down with us to talk about the resources they need to provide a full and proper service.”

The policy emerged in a document, entitled ‘Confirming Identity Examiner Processes’, drawn up to help staff checking applications for new passports.

Anyone on the list of 100 postcodes faces “additional checking”, including attempts to contact the counter-signatory – the person who confirms a child’s application is true and accurate.

Some passport fraud involves taking on the identity of a dead person to make an application, using fake birth certificates or stolen and altered passports.

Offenders wishing to conceal their identity include people trying to enter the UK illegally, avoid deportation, commit financial crimes or get involved in drug or people trafficking.

In a blistering report this week, the Home Affairs Committee criticised the Passport Office for a “summer of chaos” – with 550,000 passport applications outstanding at one stage.

And it said bosses are exploiting the public by “making a profit on what is a basic right” – calling for the price of a passport to be slashed by £15.

A Passport Office spokesman said: “Detecting fraudulent applications protects the public and, in the case of child passports, safeguards children.

“All applications are subject to a number of security checks. Procedures have been subject to a full equality impact assessment prior to introduction but remain under review.”