British companies are planning to microchip some of their staff in order to boost security and stop them accessing sensitive areas.

Biohax, a Swedish company that provides human chip implants, told the Telegraph it was in talks with a number of UK legal and financial firms to implant staff with the devices.

One prospective client, which cannot be named, is a major financial services firm with “hundreds of thousands of employees.”

”These companies have sensitive documents they are dealing with,” said Jowan Österlund, the founder of Biohax and a former professional body piercer. “[The chips] would allow them to set restrictions for whoever.”

The chips, which are about the size of a grain of rice, are installed via a syringe in the fleshy area between the thumb and forefinger. They cost £150 each and are similar to those used for pets.

Mr Österlund claims the relatively painless implant surgery is safer than getting your ears pierced and takes “about two seconds”. He also believes the chips are less likely to be hacked because they sit beneath the skin.

“In a company with 200,000 employees, you can offer this as an opt-in,” says Mr Österlund. “If you have a 15pc uptake that is still a huge number of people that won’t require a physical ID pass.”