Apply now if your passport is due for renewal because the price of a standard 10-year adult one rises by £9 to £51 on 1 December.

The increased fees are to cover the cost of extra security measures to combat fraud and forgery.

They will include enhanced checks on applicants, face-to-face interviews for first-time adult applicants from October 2006, and new biometric passports from February 2006 with facial features held in a computer chip.