Bad dog!!

Welsh rugby (union) player had to pull out of his team's trip to France to play a Heineken Cup match because he found that his dog had chewed up his passport - much hilarity in the press along the "dog ate my homework" lines.  But the story does raise some interesting points - like for instance, why for a journey like this do you need a physical passport anyway?  All the necessary information is on the Home Office computer database and is, or could be made easily available to the airline and border authorities.  Passports are a useful - if expensive - form of ID but other than that surely all you need to leave the country or get back in again is evidence that you have been issued with one and that it is still valid.  The more I think about it the more I wonder if this isn't just a governmental cash-generating scheme.