HL Deb 14 December 1989 vol 513 cc1395-7

3.11 p.m.

Lord Boyd-Carpenter asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is now the average time taken by the London office of the Passport Office to renew a passport which requires renewal solely by reason of being 10 years old.

The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)

My Lords, the London Passport Office is processing straightforward applications, including those for replacement passports, in a maximum of eight working days.

Lord Boyd-Carpenter

My Lords, is the remarkable improvement on the past form of the passport office which that Answer indicates due to the very considerable pressure which many of us know the noble Earl himself exerted upon it?

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I am quite certain that all improvements in performance are as a result of increased efficiency and no doubt increased pressures from different quarters. But I should not like my noble friend to take upon himself the thought that it was his pressure alone that succeeded in making the results of the passport office as good as that.

Lord Gainford

My Lords, does my noble friend recall that some time ago he demonstrated the new passport and explained that it would still be possible to obtain the old British standard passport? Will it take longer to obtain one of the old-style passports than one of the new magenta ones? I ask this question out of personal interest. My own passport expires next October.

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, it entirely depends on which passport office issues the passport. Some passport offices are geared up to issuing the new passport, in which case, if my noble friend applies to one of those, he will receive a new passport. If he applies to one of the offices which issues the old-style passport, he will receive one of those. In either case the procedure takes the same length of time.

Lord Mishcon

My Lords, is the noble Earl aware that, when the noble Lord, Lord Boyd-Carpenter, tabled his Question, he did not expect the Answer which he received today? Can he confirm that it is not so much the result of pressure from on high, or from whatever level it may have come, that has produced this improvement but rather that the staffing requirements for which some of us asked have been largely fulfilled by way of an increase in staff?

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for being so perceptive. I agree that I did not expect my noble friend to be quite as gratified as he was. The noble Lord is right to this extent. There have been problems over the speed of issue of passports, but we have taken a number of steps to deal with them. Much of the procedure has been computerised and an extra 220 permanent staff have been employed. A combination of all these factors has resulted in the better results so far.

Lord Boyd-Carpenter

My Lords, will my noble friend convey to the noble Lord, Lord Mishcon, the idea that it is sometimes quite a good thing to put down a Question which genuinely asks for information? Will he suggest to the noble Lord that he might follow that example sometimes?

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I am bound to say that it is rare that such a modest request comes through for the Government to provide information. Very often the noble Lord asking a Question has a good idea what the Answer will be. I quite understand that on this occasion my noble friend was entirely naïve and did not know what the result would be. I am happy to pass on my noble friend's suggestion to the noble Lord, Lord Mishcon. Perhaps in future he will be kind enough to ask only Questions to which he knows what the Answers will be.

Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

My Lords, on a matter to which I do not know the answer, does my noble friend agree that it would be a great simplification of procedures if persons over 60 whose appearance, regrettably, is subject in photographic terms only to progressive decline could receive passports for life?

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I regard the premise upon which my noble friend bases his question as totally offensive. I can assure him that even he may find that after the age of 60 his appearance is an improvement on that which went before. Whether it is or not, it is an international practice that passports should last for only 10 years. In the case of the new machine-readable common format passport, it is designed so that it has to be replaced every 10 years for security reasons.

Lord Mishcon

My Lords, is the noble Earl aware that he is in very good form this afternoon?

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I am most grateful for that question. I do not know whether or not the noble Lord knows the answer.

Lord Ezra

My Lords, I have a feeling that this Question is not being treated with the gravity with which it should be treated. I welcome the noble Earl's Answer and I express the hope that one day we will not need passports to move around in the European Community. If one is waiting to obtain a new passport, what can one do if one has to travel during that period?

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I would not wish to have conveyed to the noble Lord that I was answering these questions in a flippant manner. I was merely trying to respond to what I thought were serious questions. The figures I have given are for the maximum time at present. Obviously, for those who need a passport in a hurry the passport office will do all that it can to accommodate them.