The Electoral Office is to apply more rigorous checks when people turn up at its office requesting replacement of ID cards which they would have lost.

Among other things, officials will henceforth request other official documents such as a passport or driving licence to prove the applicant's identity. Where such documents are not presented, or where doubts persists, research will be carried out in the Electoral Commission's archives to compare signatures.

The Chief Electoral Commissioner said these procedures may cause some delays in the granting of replacement ID cards, for which he apologised.

In his statement the Commissioner referred to a recent case where a woman managed to steal somebody else's identity and was granted a replacement ID card under somebody else's name.

The normal procedures had been followed in this case, but the applicant had altered her appearance so much that comparison to the picture of the person whose identity she had stolen did not raise suspicion, the commissioner said.