1. Chip and Kiss is the latest in a number of new technologies tested by Nationwide, including iris recognition at cash machines, fingerprint recognition and voice verification trials.

2. Mr McNulty said voice verification systems would be used as part of a package of reporting measures to ensure the authorities did not lose touch with failed asylum seekers in the country.

3. For example, we might require somebody to ring in three times a week and then the fourth time they must go to meet somebody." Voice verification companies say the system is so sophisticated it could pass the "Rory Bremner test". Voiceprints are also capable of coping with variations in someone‘s voice caused, for example, by the common cold or by smoking.

4. At the time it was a great idea but I‘m confident nothing will come back out of it‘." In court, Mr Sheridan denied he had confessed to party colleagues at a meeting after the tabloid story appeared in November 2003, rebutting the evidence of 11 witnesses who claimed to have heard it and said that a minute of the meeting in which he is supposed to have confessed was "dodgy". But on the tape, he allegedly admits making the confession which he describes as a "humungous mistake". The newspaper claims that on the tape Mr Sheridan then goes on to say that he wanted to face the story down but if presented with "incontrovertible evidence" such as "video tapes, CCTV, something of that character" then "I‘ll put my hand up and say ‘I‘m sorry‘ ... and I‘ll walk away". The News of the World, which is appealing against the defamation decision, took the tape to four voice verification experts.