A BOLTON businessman has welcomed new Government plans to encourage innovation.

And Yogesh Raja is confident that the move signals new hope for his bid to get his invention widely accepted.

As reported in the BEN, Mr Raja has devised his Personalised Security Stamp system in a bid to combat fraud and improve safety of medicines.

But so far all his efforts to persuade banks and government departments to trial the PSS have failed.

The PSS is a sticky label which carries the photograph of an individual and leaves a space for the signature of the holder.

Mr Raja believes a system using photographs would deter fraudsters who are able to forge signatures on documents. He says the label can be applied to bank cheques and other official documents.

He has also developed an alternative use for the stamps where details of individual medication can be written next to a photo of the person who needs to take them and then stuck to a medicine bottle.

Risk

Mr Raja believes this will cut the risk of accidents with medication given out in nursing homes or at school.

Now Mr Raja, who operates as Visual Security International Limited, is renewing his efforts to persuade the authorities to look in detail at his idea.

A Government White Paper on competitiveness includes plans to encourage innovation and turn new ideas into commercial products.

Mr Raja said: "At the moment most of the new ideas seem to be imported from abroad.

"But if we develop ideas like mine we can create jobs and benefit everyone once the system is in operation.

"This positive news from the Government is my best Christmas present this year."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.