Mr. De la Bèreasked the Prime Minister (1) whether, in respect of duplicate passports which are issued by the head passport office on account of passports which have been reported as stolen or missing, accurate records will be kept for the period 1st January, 1939, to 1st December, 1939;
(2) whether he can state for the years 1936, 1937, and 1938 an approximate figure of the number of duplicate pass-ports which were issued by the head passport office on account of passports which were reported as stolen or missing?
§ Mr. ButlerIn 1936 there were issued in London 168,000 passports; in 1937, 240,000; and in 1938, 208,000. During these years the number of passports reported lost, mislaid or destroyed only amounted to a very small percentage of the total, but exact figures could not be obtained without the expenditure of a very great amount of time and labour. Although careful records are kept of all cases in which passports are reported to have been lost, stolen or destroyed, there are considerable objections to keeping a separate register.
My hon. Friend may be assured that the records kept of individual cases afford a sufficient check and that special measures are always adopted where there are any grounds for suspicion that a missing passport may fall into wrong hands.