Originally Posted by
FlyingMole
which suggest that at some point there'll be no signed paper form to compare against. (I suppose a digitally capture signature could be used on an electronically submitted form, but then that would invalidate the reason for needing a manual signature on the new passport.)
Signatures are a curiously old fashioned form of identity validation generally but particularly on a passport which contains biometric data. Makes a lot of sense to remove if it streamlines the application process in my book.