§ John BarrettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passports sent to his 1585W Department for immigration purposes have been lost in each of the last five years; and how many were subsequently found. [181998]
§ Mr. BrowneStatistics on the number of letters issued for passports reported lost or mislaid in the Immigration Nationality Directorate would be available only at disproportionate cost.
However, in General Group, which processes all applications for variation of leave to remain from in-country applicants and considers applications for Home Office travel documents from non-British nationals, there were 53 issued from April 2001 to March 2002; 335 issued from April 2002 to March 2003; and 469 issued from April 2003 to March 2004. This should be balanced against the number of decisions made in the same period which were 380,000; 403,000; and 534,000 respectively.