New UK passport changes: Shakespeare, Anish Kapoor and Ada Lovelace part of ‘most secure design ever issued’

The new documents use the latest advances in security printing using UV and infrared light, inks and watermarks

The new UK passport design promises to be the most secure 'ever issued' (Home Office )

The Home Office has unveiled the new designs for UK passports, which the Government promises feature the latest in anti-fraud technology, while celebrating 500 years of British culture.

The new travel documents, which are updated every five years, feature advances in the use of security printing by using UV and infrared light, inks and watermarks to stop fraudsters from forging the new designs.

Further security measures include the use of a single sheet of paper for the personal details page through to the page adjoined to the back cover to prevent the passport from being tampered with.

William Shakespeare, architect Elisabeth Scott who designed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon appear in the new passports, as do inventor Charles Babbage and mathematician Ada Lovelace (known for her work on Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer), painter John Constable, inventor John Harrison and architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

The works of contemporary artists Antony Gormley, best known for his sculpture the Angel of the North, and Anish Kapoor, known for the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture created for the London 2012 Olympic Games, are represented on the pages of the new passports.

An image of Shakespeare has been added to the list of watermarks used in the documents, including a gipsy moth IV sailing boat, floral motifs representing the UK, and a writer’s scroll and quill.